Why Didn't You Tell Me!
by Nftnat
Summary: But what if Kim HAD told Ron of Tara's crush on him, or otherwise gotten them together?
1. PreCrush

Hello, folks; it's me again

Hello, folks; it's me again. It's a bit soon since my first KP fic, but this has been screaming to get out for months now. It was a wonder that I managed to get a canon fic out there first.

So from that last statement, you know that this isn't canon. There have been all kinds of series that - while rooted in the series - diverge from the series at some point, radically in some cases. There's Ron-Go, Bon-Ron, Ki-Ron-Bon, Ki-Ron-Go, other non-S-4 forms of KR, etc. But with all the fuss about Kim and Shego and Bonnie and others, it seems to me that one potential love interest for Ron has been criminally neglected. That girl is the sweet, innocent, kind, caring, gentle, underused, under-developed (story-wise, not physically), pretty little blue-eyed (platinum) blonde we know as Tara.

You'll recognize the title of this fic as something Ron said in the third season on finding out that he had a chance with her and didn't know it until it was too late. For what I have in mind, I go back to the first season; specifically the episode Crush. (FYI I'm going by the episode order which includes Sink Or Swim, Number One, and Crush, in that order) Watching Emotion Sickness and keeping events from the first season in mind I wondered, what if Kim HAD told Ron? Of course if she had, he would have either spazzed or gone all Mr. Smooth, maybe blowing his chances with Tara either way, especially with Bonnie there. So there had to be something she could have done short of actually telling him, some way of getting the two of them together. I like to think I've worked it out. This will start the night before Crush - which accounts for the chapter title when I get another chapter up - and go from there. Future fics in this continuity will go through the rest of the first season and beyond.

BTW I will continue fics rooted in the show itself as well as this continuity. I have many plans for Kim & Ron and the others; it might take the rest of my life to get around to all of them. Think of this as the Taroniverse (if no one has beaten me to that term, I call dibs).

Kim Possible and all related characters, ideas and concepts are copyrighted to Schooley-McCorkle and Walt Disney Animation, a unit of Disney and Buena Vista Entertainment.

To her credit, Bonnie had managed to outlast Kim's prediction, although not Ron's. She'd hung on as cheer squad captain for three weeks, not two, before the increased workload and "giving 150" (or whatever number she'd bumped it up to by then) came to be just too much. Late on the night of Day 19 of what Ron was calling the "Rockwaller Regime", Bonnie had placed a call to Kim, which was the subject of Kim's current late-night phone conversation with her best friend Ron. Bonnie had called to make Kim an offer: Bonnie would resign the captaincy, quietly, behind the scenes; Kim would show up as captain and - considering no one ever knew when Kim might be called away on a mission - Bonnie would have the new title of co-captain and lead the squad in the event of the above sitch. This would take place with no one saying a word of Bonnie having gone after, gained, or resigned the top spot. In other words…

"Total denial? And no one's going to say anything?"

"Bonnie's already put the word out to the rest of the squad."

"And they all fell right in line. You know, KP, that's one thing Bon-Bon has on you is lining up the rest of the squad behind her when she has a mind to. Maybe if you tried to pick off one or two of them--"

"The nicest member of the squad is her best friend--"

"Which one?"

"Tara?"

"Oh yeah; she is nice."

"Especially when she kissed you back at Camp Wan--"

"Kim, we agreed never to mention that place again."

"Sorry, Ron."

"Place of evil, KP; place of evil!"

"Getting back to point, even with her 'people skills' I am again head cheerleader. So let her have what she can get."

"If you say so, KP. Hmm, I keep coming back to 'total denial'."

"She said she got the idea from two girls in Connecticut on this Queen Bee bulletin board: 'Top of the Food Chain dot org'."

"They have their own bulletin board community? Well, I guess everyone does these days. I wonder if--?"

"Before I could even think to ask, Bonnie told me not to try getting onto it. It's password protected and encrypted; very hard to crack."

"Wade could crack it."

"But why? Life's too short to worry about Bonnie and her old girl network--"

"Do you know if Bonnie is older than you or not?"

"Let's move on."

"To what?"

"Well, Spirit Week is coming up--"

"Shh! Not so loud!"

"What?"

"I just put Rufus to bed. He gets very amped up about S-P-I-R-I-T Week, and he needs to get a good night's sleep."

"I was wondering why you were whispering, even the whole 'place of evil' sitch. You're a good single parent, Ron."

"Thanks. So, who's the hottie du jour?"

"'Hottie du jour'? Ron!"

"Kim, every time you-know-what comes up, you catch a fresh crush."

"So not."

"I can set my calendar by it."

"You want to amp down a little, Ron? You'll wake Rufus."

"Oh. Good call, KP. Um, you know Walter Nelson transferred."

"Non-story, Ron. Even if he hadn't, I couldn't look him in the face, not after the, 'braces' incident."

"Kim, it's been, what? Two years? Three?"

"Aren't we getting off-topic?"

"Oh, yeah. Um, anyone on the horizon?"

"I don't know. I've been hearing about this guy Josh--"

"Josh Mankey?"

"Yeah, I hear he's kind of nice."

"If by 'nice', you mean that when you try to say 'hi' to him, he looks right through you and goes on like you weren't even there, then, yes, I'd say he was quite nice."

"Will Du rubbed off on you a bit, Ron; I don't know if you noticed. Tweaked much?"

"Don't get me wrong, Kim. Otherwise he's a good choice, according to the grapevine he ranks pretty high on the hottie-meter. He's just off in his own little world, a world of arts and music and… he's just off in a fog. sigh Well, whatever you decide, KP, you know I have your back."

"Please and thank you. yawn"

"Time to turn in?"

"Good call, Ron. Good night."

"Good night, KP."

"Happy Spirit Week."

"Happy Spirit Week to you too."

"YAY!"

"Oh, way to go, KP! You made me wake Rufus!"

"Sorry."

"Gotta go."

"Night, Ron."

Getting to sleep that night was not as easy as she had anticipated. Her thoughts kept dwelling around the Spirit Week dance, and of this time, lining up a date. Josh Mankey? Well, maybe. She'd ask him or someone else, or someone would ask her; of that much she was certain.

The hard part would be separating herself from Ron, her best friend of going-on-twelve years. They'd always gone together as friends, but she had plans for that to not be the case this year. But how to break it to Ron?

Maybe if he had a date too. That would work! Then he'd go with his date, and she'd go with hers. But who would he ask, and more to the point, who would go with him? Oh, as his best friend she loved him like family, but that was just her, and she wouldn't be going with him; she'd have to find someone who, like Ron, didn't care about the whole 'food chain' sitch. But who would that be? Who?  
Who? That was the last thought in her mind as she drifted off to dream…

"…You remind me of the cruel kids in camp. Sticks and stones."

"gasp! They called you names?"

"Yes, while they were hitting me with sticks and stones!"

"Um, Ron?"

"Yes, Tara?"

"I'm hungry."

"Tara! Those are ancient!"

"Guh-ross!"

"It's, not so bad. It's, definitely food-style!"

"Nice work, Stoppable."

"Excellent!" "Good going, Ron!" "You rule!"

"No, no, no, no, thank you, thank you."

"Hee-hee-hee-hee, smack!"

The alarm went off, interrupting yet another reprise of the highlights (or low-lights) of Camp Wannaweep. It had been more than a month now, but those particular dreams revisited her every five days on average. It's almost like someone's trying to tell me something, she thought as she went about her usual morning constitutional.

Sorting through her closet was part of that routine, lining up her clothes for the day, as well as her cheer uniform on most school days. On rare occasion - of which this wasn't one - she might idly wonder if Ron might not have the right idea, getting like a dozen of the same sets of clothes and just taking turns with them. Again, she wasn't thinking that today.

En route to the former and now again current uniform, she passed by what Ron had dubbed "The a-Bonnie-nation". Granted that Kim wasn't the most fashion-conscious member of the squad - which wasn't necessarily a bad thing - but she had an opinion, which was as good as anyone else's, in her opinion. Simply put: purple with orange trim and yellow pleats is fine; yellow with purple trim and orange pleats made the squad look like a mustard display. Apparently the rest of the squad was quick to see the light on that; even Bonnie herself had agreed eventually and dropped those uniforms after a week. The new cheer was good and had been kept; the new uniforms were not and had not been.

Glimpsing that large economy sized caution light again, her mind again went back to the first time she'd laid eyes on them.

"Thanks to Bonnie, we've got new uniforms. Aren't they badical?"

As if, Tara! Those things were eyesores, and not even one of the admittedly more developed members of the squad trying to sex them up - and throwing in a Ron-ism - could, change.. that…

Wait, that was it! Tara! Back at the camp-which-will-not-be-named, she was practically throwing herself at Ron from what Kim saw; and according to what she'd heard on the bus coming back, the blonde had been even more so while she and Mr. Barkin had gone for firewood. Why, Tara had kept striking up conversations with Ron, she'd humored him more than the rest of the squad put together - even including Kim - she'd actually kissed him while they were leaving, she'd even tried his years-old snack foods! Also, as a cheerleader she's high enough on Bonnie's precious 'food chain' that Ron would look good, as Bonnie's best friend Tara could insulate Ron from the wrath of the Queen Bee, she's one of the nicest people in school, she actually likes Ron; she's perfect!

Yes! That would be the plan: to set Ron up to go to the dance with Tara. It would be just a matter of getting them together, and someone would ask someone. Of that much, Kim was certain.

So now lining up a date of her own to the dance became the hard part. But that wouldn't be hard at all. Who wouldn't want to take the head cheerleader? It would be just a matter of meeting the guy, maybe Josh, maybe, well, who knows.

Her plans for the day forming in her head, Kim decided on her green halter top and cargo jeans and headed downstairs for breakfast-- WHOOSH! --her morning chewing out of the Tweebs, and then to leave for school. And if Ron showed up for breakfast, part of the job would be done by the time Middleton High came in sight. Time would tell on that.

And so we head into the events of Crush. This won't be left hanging forever; the next two or three chapters are already in the final stages. Next time we'll see some missing scenes from Crush, and have a look into a mind or two. Until then, I'm Nftnat, on the internet, e-mail, and AIM. Cy'all.


	2. Behind the Crush

A/N: Here I am again, you lucky people, you

A/N: Here I am again, you lucky people, you! -- Honey (as in Bosko and), Fields of Honey, TTA

Seriously, a fave, an author alert, two story alerts, and six reviews. I'm bowled over. Just saying 'thanks' is inadequate, but I thank y'all anyway. The people have spoken, so I'd better get the next chapter up pronto. So be it.

In reviewing some of my favorite fics on here, I've recently been reminded that the author is able to send a reply to the reviews via e-mail. While I've thought of doing that myself, if you'll notice on my fics in other areas I'm used to thanking the reviewers in the notes to the next chapter (though I need to make exceptions for last chapters and one-shots). So before the main event, here we go:

Cajun Bear (hmm, 1973? I was born in that year.): Thank you. You might be right about Kim sacrificing long-term happiness; we all know she & Ron are a destined couple. That said, at this point in the series neither of them were thinking anything like that, which is why she wasn't jelling over Zita. As to Tara not being intelligent, let me get back to you on that. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow…

Comet Moon: Yes she is. And Attack of the Killer Bebes is fifth in the order I have the episodes, Crush being thirteenth. I could list the order I have them, but not here.

Daccu65: Thanks. Here it is.

Bubbahotek: I hope to deliver on that promise. As you can see I'm taking one of your suggestions re. the author notes, but as to bold, that's coming up. Methinks I'll try something else, like maybe that underline thingy. Dashing across the page didn't work… Oh, here it is.

Ah, Samurai Crunchbird, always glad to make a friend, and something tells me it will be in my best interest to get to know you better: I couldn't agree more about the closet, although I can't promise it won't come up (What's that, Larry? No spoilers? Okay). I have had my share of frustrations with what ff.n does to my writings. It's bad enough I have to write them in Works on another computer and e-mail them into Word here, then… but enough ranting. You mke the site sound like a government bureaucracy, and I can't disagree. As I said in my response to BH, I'm going to try experimenting with bold, italics, etc. I value all the advice you can spare and will do my best to act on it. I'll also try to find out the answers to questions like, why did ff.n print the first sentence twice? And no asterisks means I'll have to couch sighs and stuff in something different like, (shrug). I also see what you mean about reviews. My Brainy Saga over in Hey Arnold! Has well over 200 of those; I really need to get back to it, though not at the cost of my KP fics. Did I mention I can get long-winded at times?

Motorized-sasquatch: Re. premise with promise, see my response to BH. Here's the next chapter.

Kim Possible and all KP characters and other concepts are copyrighted Schooley-McCorkle and Disney Animation, a unit of Walt Disney / Buena Vista Entertainment.

**Chapter 2: Behind the Crush **

Ron had not shown up for breakfast. When Kim got to school she found him digging through his locker, for a purpose yet to be determined.  
"Rufus? Ruuuu-fus? Here, boy!"  
All right, the purpose is to find Rufus. Well, try to break in on his thoughts and plant in his mind the seed of the idea of asking Tara to the dance; good luck with that, Miss I-Can-Do-Anything.  
"Hey, Ron."  
"Shh, Rufus has gone missing." he says, handing her a dead banana.  
"Maybe he's hibernating." she absently says. It must be a momentary mental eclipse, as not only does she know full well that Rufus is not hibernating, she's actually peeling Ron's dead banana!  
_What am I doing?_, she wonders as she comes out of the mental eclipse and tosses the dead - and now peeled - banana back into Ron's locker, adding to the gorchy mess, eww!  
By the time she's paying attention to Ron again, he's apparently having some kind of seizure-- no, it's a certain pocket pet crawling in between Ron's body and clothes - eww again! - finally emerging when Ron digs in Rufus' usual haunt in his cargo pants. Kim makes an effort not to visualize what kind of holes must be in Ron's pockets to allow Rufus to get around his human so.  
"A naked mole rat. Ron, ever think about getting a normal pet?" Now, that's not fair; she knows Mr. Stoppable is allergic to all pet hair and fur.  
"Like what?"  
"Something not naked."  
Rufus returns her insult toward him with a Bronx cheer.  
"NEVER be--" is all she hears from Ron before she spots HIM!, the ultimate golden hottie, a boy who she subconsciously hears Ron identify as Josh Mankey, the guy she was going to ask to the Spirit dance, putting up a poster for the dance yet!

Several minutes later, she finds herself at the end of the hall where Josh was, next to the poster he had put up. She had apparently tried to talk with him, but instead she had disconnected from her brain to an extent as to make her wonder if she'd need her mother's professional services.  
Now she was walking alongside Ron as was her wont, mentally and verbally beating herself up.  
"I can't even form a SENTENCE around Josh; how am I going to ask him to Friday's dance?"  
"Ask Mankey? I don't know, Kim; don't you think he might feel… awkward? With us?"  
"Us?"  
"Well, we always go together."  
Oh yeah, the other object of the day; steer Ron into going separately, with dates. Better bring him along slowly.  
"Yeah, but that's as, you know, friends; and this time I was thinking about lining up a, you know…"  
"An enemy?!"  
Ugh! He can be so clueless sometimes! Like Kim Possible was going to ask out Drakken or Duff Killigan next time they fought (with Ron asking out Shego), or respond to all those roses Junior had stuffed her locker with, as if! Angry face on.  
"A date!"  
Well, there's the idea, planted right there in front of him. And he spazzes for a minute before saying he could do that.  
"Great. So who are you going to ask?"  
"For ME to get a date? Who am I NOT going to ask?!"  
Uh-oh, man overboard. Without some damage control, and now!, Ron's going to go off the deep end again, asking every girl at school, totally ruining his life-saving cred. And he's so cute when he's like this too! Well, time for damage control, time to bring up Tara--  
Beep! Beep! BEE-Beep!  
Well, that will have to wait; missions before dating. Isn't that always the way it is.  
"Hey, Wade. What up?"  
Time for mission mode, Kimmie.

Minutes later, the members of Team Possible are guests aboard the private jet of teen pop superstar Britina, in the company of the lady herself, just chugging non-alcoholic cool drinks and shooting the breeze with her like it's no big. Eventually, an uncomfortable subject comes up.  
"His name's Josh Mankey."  
"Ooh, crush story."  
"I feel so ridiculous around him."  
"Just go for it; what's the worst thing that could happen?"

And then Ron apparently decides now is as good a time as any to start to try to find a date, so he goes into Mr. Smooth mode.  
"So, Britina, as a pop superstar, I'll bet you miss out on stuff like school dances, with, you know, normal, average guys."  
"True."  
"Friday. Dance. You. Me. Average guy."  
"No."

A brief pause for Ron to recover, then he turns to his BFF.  
"See. Was that so hard?"  
"Only to watch."  
"I'm serious, Kim. Look, however much of a hottie Josh Mankey is, is he on the level with, say, a pop superstar?"  
"Well…"  
"Careful how you answer that one, Kimmie." The resident pop superstar is quick to put in.  
"Okay, no. He isn't."  
"Well, consider this: I, an average guy, have just asked out a pop superstar - more than ANY hottie - AND I got shot down. Did anything bad happen? Has the Earth opened at my feet?"  
"We're in the air, Ron."  
"Has a wormhole appeared beneath my feet and swallowed me up? Have I keeled over? No. We're still here, the sky is still blue, and tomorrow the sun will still come out."  
"Thank you, Annie."  
"He's right, Kim. You have to go for it. Just ask him; it won't be as bad as you think." Britina then leans closer toward Kim to whisper to her, "And hold on to this one."  
"What?"  
"If he's willing to go through all this for you, well…"  
"Britina!"  
But talking further with her favorite teen pop superstar will have to wait, as the pilot buzzes in announcing their destination. Here comes Tokyo; time to go mission mode.

Although, as Team Possible was preparing to jump…  
"So what were you and Britina whispering about?"  
"Oh, nothing, just girl stuff."  
"Just girl stuff, huh? Well, that girl's loss, another girl's gain."  
"Ron, you're not really going to go asking every girl you see to the dance?"  
"Only until someone says 'yes'; why?"  
"Well--"  
BUZZ!  
"Uh-oh, have to wait. Time to jump, KP."

The mission was a mixed bag. The employees were freed, but Drakken and Shego escaped, taking most of the building with them. And while it can't definitely be said that Ron didn't have his head in the game, he was clearly on his great date hunt. Asking out Britina on the plane was one thing, but Nakasumi's translator Yoshiko at the scene of the crime? Ron would need a word or two about time and place.  
Then there was the Josh sitch. Ron had really come through there, along with Britina, trying to boost the Possible ego; it was pretty much what she heard from her mother the next morning, well, kind of.

Now she was standing across the hall from her crush, again. She kept going over her mother's words: Big breath, then take the plunge. Big breath, then…  
Suddenly the bell rings. Of course that means breakneck pedestrian traffic between classes, can't move without risking running into someone; where is Mr. "No Running In the Halls" Barkin when we need him? And here they come, forming an almost-solid wall in between here and Josh. Nothing to do but try to find a hole, then punch in.  
Huh, there's Jessica, and there's Crystal. Liz, immediately followed by Marcella; no surprise there. What? That blond guy in the red shirt has run through here four times, once in the opposite direction! Hope, is the whole squad changing classes? Is Josh even still there; can't really see. (sigh), now or never, Possible. Big breath, plunging…  
BONK! "Ow!" "Ouch!"

A/N: I know, most of this was taken from Crush. My thought was that there was some stuff the cameras didn't show, like what Kim (and later others) was thinking. Also, if you freeze-framed the episode you noticed that in that last scene Kim crossed the hall in between Liz and Marcella; obviously I've changed things as you'll see more in upcoming chapters. I've tried to keep faith with the episode while exploring this option, hey, I've already said I'm going to get Ron with Tara in this continuity so little things will be just a little bit different, and later not not-so-little things will be more different. Next time we'll see what's on the other side of that cliffhanger. Until then, I'm Nftnat, online, on e-mail (aol), and on AIM. Cy'all.


	3. Enter the Platinum

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

A/N: Hello again, everyone. While I still haven't figured out why the server repeats the first sentence, I have received another author alert, three more story alerts, and five more reviews, as well as a message from a fan of my other works asking me to get back to those. I guess that's reason enough to post Chapter 3, a day and change after Chapter 2. Just a bit of a warning, things will start to differ from the episodes, due to, well, spinning off in another direction. This started firmly planted in the series, but is becoming AU. I'll try to stay as close as possible to, well, y'all probably know what I mean. Now, to take care of the reviews.

Cajun Bear, some seeds sprout, some don't. Like I said, at this point it doesn't occur to Kim to jell. (see Zita) But if everyone else can see and the two of them can't, well… And thanks for noticing the filling out of the conversations; they'll start to get different - though familiar - very shortly.

Comet Moon, exactly, they have no idea how their world is about to change. And you want Tara? You got Tara.

Mr. Average, thank you. I saw another TaRon fic a couple pages back titled, "I Like You."

SC, I'm grateful for any suggestions for improvement I can get. I do have a habit of putting just the voices, keeping the dialogue tight. People have said that I can write so that the 'he said she said' things aren't necessary to figure out who's saying what, but I can always stand to improve. I've been trying to add those indicators without getting the feeling that I'm getting wordy, even florid. I know I'm really going to need to step up in future chapters to justify these good reviews.

Kaiokken, a jelling Kim? Not saying there will be, not saying there won't be. Remember she's into Josh right now and into the third season. Also, see response to CB.

Kim Possible and all Kim Possible characters and concepts are created and copyright by Schooley-McCorkle and Disney Animation, a unit Walt Disney / Buena Vista Entertainment.

**Chapter 3: Enter the Platinum **

The other side of the hall, and no Josh. Just two girls, on the floor, in a little bit of pain.  
"Oww!"  
She recognized that voice, an octave higher than hers. "Tara?"  
"Kim?"  
It was her all right; those blue eyes and that platinum blonde hair were unmistakable.  
"I'm so sorry about that. Are you all right?"  
"Yeah, I only hit my head,", she stifled another groan, "and my elbows and knees when I went down."  
Kim was rubbing the point of impact on her own noggin. "Sorry again. They should totally install traffic lights for between classes, or we should wear elbow and knee pads."  
"And helmets, don't forget the helmets."  
"Sure, if you like helmet hair." Kim agreed, conveniently forgetting how often she wore helmets. "Boy, am I the only member of the squad who's not changing classes in a hurry right now?"  
"I think Bonnie has a free period too. I've got to get to class." Tara mumbled as she started to stand.  
Kim reached out to steady her. "Here, I'll walk you there, just to make sure you're all right."  
Tara hesitated. "Well…"  
"It's all right; my Mom's a doctor."  
"I know, and your Dad's a rocket scientist, but that doesn't mean I'd trust you to put me in orbit."  
"Neither would I. So if I need to operate on you I'll call Mom. But I think I've picked up enough over the years to know basic first aid should it come to it."  
The two cheerleaders - one in uniform - helped each other up, and Kim escorted Tara to her next class.

O

It seemed neither of them was the worse for wear, once they'd taken the proverbial advice of the football coach and 'walked it off'.  
With Kim's mind clearing, she remembered what she had in mind for her fellow cheerleader.  
"I'm actually glad I ran into you, Tara - ah, not literally."  
"Oh?"  
"Yeah. Are you going to the dance with anyone yet?"  
Tara stiffened under Kim's hand. "Um, Kim, I don't know what you might have heard, but I don't swing that way."  
"Neither do I." Kim hurriedly responded, followed by a "Not that there's anything wrong with that." in stereo.  
This time Kim wasn't the first to say it. "Jinx! You owe me a soda!"  
"All right. Look, Tara, I'm not asking; I'm just making a discreet inquiry for a friend who doesn't even know I'm discreetly inquiring."  
Tara struggled to process this patented example of Ron-speak, not noticing how her fellow blond was rubbing off on the head cheerleader. "Does this friend have a name?"  
Kim hesitated only for a second. "It's Ron."  
An extra sparkle could be seen in those blue eyes for a fraction of a second before they lidded somewhat. "The Ron who rented the school sign for his own personal ad?"  
"Well, I don't think it's Ron Reiger. Yeah, I'm trying to head that off before he blows all the goodwill he built up at camp."  
What excitement there was in Tara at the thought of going with Ron was at war with the dubiety ingrained from her best friend, Bonnie Rockwaller.  
"And you want me to go to the dance with him."  
"Well, you like him, don't you?"  
She hesitated. "Um…"  
"Tara, it's all right."  
"Aren't you going with him? You two go together every year."  
"That's as friends; this year we're going with dates. I'm totally going to ask Josh Mankey, if I can actually talk to him."  
"Oh."  
"So? Would you be willing to go with Ron?"  
She clearly wanted to, but Bonnie's influence was a powerful force. "I don't know."  
"Come on, Tara; I know you like him, or you wouldn't have kissed him at camp."  
A slight blush could be seen in her porcelain features. "That, didn't really mean anything."  
This didn't fool Kim, whose face was in the process of acquiring a smirk.  
"You've been slipping some Ron-go into your speech."  
Puzzlement from the platinum blonde. "Ron-go?"  
"Ron lingo."  
The puzzlement continued. "Is he a transfer student? I don't think I've heard of him."  
Now Kim was confused. "Who?"  
"Ron Lingo."  
Kim was recognized the signs in her of tweak-age. To head it off, she turned up the intensity a notch. "Lingo, words, that Ron makes up, like 'badical'; ring a bell?" Kim heatedly asked, holding up the thumb and fore- and middle fingers of her hand in front of Tara's face to simulate ringing a little bell.  
"Oh. Heh-heh. Well…" The blush deepened by one shade.  
"Tara, you tried his ancient pork puffs!"  
"I was hungry, and they weren't completely inedible." Tara's eyes found the floor as she clasped her hands, keeping the arms straight.  
The smirk returned. "Mm-hmm. And you had to go to the bathroom as soon as we got back, and stayed in there an hour, because?"  
Tara finally surrendered to the inevitable, as if she really wanted to fight it. "Oh, all right. If I see him, I'll talk to him about it."  
"Good, you can talk to him now. Here's your class."  
"What?!" She turned and…

o

Sure enough, they were now at the door to Tara's next class. Fortunately for Tara, the teacher was running a bit late. Even more fortunate, Barkin was filling in elsewhere. And there was Ron, getting a late start on leaving that classroom; he considered it his way of avoiding the rush.  
"Hey, KP. Tara."  
"Hey, Ron."  
Tara was valiantly trying to pull out of her blush; fortunately, Ron didn't notice. "Hi."  
Ron's attention naturally went to his best friend. "So what's your free period look like, KP?"  
"I'm heading to the gym, you know, work on the routine, scope out the art and stuff."  
Didn't fool him for a second. "Hoping to catch Josh there?"  
Now it was Kim's turn to blush. "Okay, you caught me. What about you?"  
"Thought I'd head up to the library; it's as good a place as any to start the Great Date Hunt in earnest."  
Kim fought the urge to slap herself - or Ron - in the face as she gritted her teeth. "I wish you'd waited on renting the school sign to announce your campaign, Ron; just a day would have been enough."  
"But he who hesitates is lost, Kim! Fortune favors the bold! You gotta strike while the iron is hot!"  
"Okay, and once we get past the stuff from the fortune cookies?" she archly inquired.  
As always, Ron's shoulders slumped in 3, 2, 1… "…okay, I got nuttin'."  
"Yeah, just so you understand that, Ron. As to the hunt, good luck with that."  
As she was saying this, she locked eyes with Tara, silently instructing her fellow cheerleader to follow Ron's advice, with regard to Ron.  
"Well, I gotta jet. See you at practice, Tara."  
"Good luck with Josh." Ron called after her.  
"Thanks, I'm going to need it."  
"Hey, I don't want to hear that from you."  
Suddenly, Ron was wearing his 'serious face'. Before either cheerleader could react, he had turned, almost ran, grabbed his BFF by the shoulders and was looking her in the eyes. "Hold it."  
"Ron?"  
Chocolate brown eyes bored into emerald green. "You can do this; you can do anything, remember?"  
Kim exhaled - a little bit shaky - and nodded. "Right. I can."  
"Just remember what your mother said. And remember what I said."  
Kim nodded again, then shrugged her way out of Ron's grasp. "I will, and thanks for the support, Ron."  
"Hey, Kim, you know I got your back," he said without turning to her retreating form. "No fear!" he added, almost shouting, right index finger pointing skyward.

O

Tara was observing this interaction between the BFFs, and almost before Ron turned toward her, she ventured, "So, looks like you two are really close."  
If she was trying to gauge the relationship of the two, it was lost on Ron.  
"Oh yeah, best buds, going back to when we were four. Yeah, she's the sister I never had, and, according to her I'm the brother she wishes she'd had. Not that there's anything wrong with her twins, any more than any other younger siblings. Sure, they're aspiring mad scientists, but they've certainly saved our lives a time or two."  
"Oh."  
Tara allowed time to elapse, almost enough to make the silence uncomfortable, before broaching the subject Kim had just pressed her into addressing.  
"So, you don't have a date to the dance yet."  
As always, it looked like nothing short of a sledgehammer was going to get Ron's attention where girls were concerned. Obliviously, he continued. "Not yet, but I'll, uh, start looking. Well, technically I've been looking but, I'm going to start looking in Middleton."  
That got Tara's attention. "Oh?"  
"Yeah, I asked this lady in Tokyo, and before that I asked Britina, you know, up on her plane."  
The wow-worthy nugget of information about the boy standing across from her hanging with an A-list celebrity convinced her that Bonnie couldn't have been more wrong about the Food Chain. But all that her brain and other body parts could agree on saying was, "Wow!"  
"Sounds more impressive than it is; I got shot down both times."  
"Sorry."  
"And there's going to be more of that, but, I'm going to keep asking."  
She liked the look of detached determination she saw on his face. "Never give up."  
He shook his head. "Never. You never know, the next girl… well, I'll just keep asking every girl I see; you never know; the next one might say yes."  
"Maybe."  
"Maybe." he agreed. Then, shrugging, he broke from Tara's company and prepared to amble down the hall. "Well, I guess I'll go down to the library and get started."  
Tara was not unfamiliar with how clueless Ron could be, but she was still momentarily stunned that he was missing a golden - well, platinum blonde - opportunity to do exactly what he'd been talking about doing: ask a girl to the dance. Angrily, she called out, "RON!"  
Thinking he must have done something to annoy her, Ron stopped, turned, and headed back to the classroom door, a little slower than he'd left. "Yeah, Tara?"  
Seeing the pained look on his face, Tara knew that Ron had not intentionally dissed her - although Bonnie would no doubt try to tell her otherwise - and decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. Reverting to her usual sunny disposition, she gave him another chance.  
"Do you, maybe, see any girl around here you could ask?"  
The seconds ticked by before Ron's eyes widened as he finally made the connection. Slapping his forehead with one hand, he exclaimed:  
"D'oh! What's wrong with me?"  
Message delivered, Tara decided to have a little fun, and her smile turned impish.  
"'Cause there's this cute guy, saved the day a time or two, that I'm thinking of asking myself."  
"Yeah?"  
"Yeah, a certain, brown-eyed blond who saved the entire cheer squad from being turned into mutants."  
"Oh! Well, I, uh… Are you asking me to the dance?"  
The smile was becoming a smirk. "What if I was? Would you say yes?"  
"Um, uh… sure?"  
"Good! It's a date, then."  
"Right! A date, huh, it's a date, heh-heh, whoo! That easy."  
Tara was still having fun with him. "I never said I was easy, Ron."  
The fog cleared enough for the young man to get that message. "Wait, what? No! No, I, I didn't mean that you were, uh, what I meant was asking, that is--" he rambled, a bit flustered.  
"It's all right, Ron. I get it. Now I'd better get to class; I'm really late now."  
"Which leads to the question of why you're standing out in the hall talking, instead of sitting at your desk in the classroom, Miss Gardner."

The blond now-couple turned as one at the last voice they wanted to hear in that sitch, and found the matching person standing over them in his familiar glowering position.  
"Mr. Barkin!"

o

"Mr. Barkin, whu-, what are you doing here? I thought you were teaching a class over on the opposite side of--" Ron began before he was interrupted.  
"Apparently you have the student-teacher relationship backwards, Stoppable. I ask the questions and you answer them, not the other way around."  
Ron nodded furiously. "R-, right, got it, Mr. Barkin."  
In point of fact, Barkin had been filling in for Ms. Maloney on the other side of campus, but Mr. Testaverde was also running late and had sent word to Barkin. The veteran had wasted no time in rounding up an aide to monitor Maloney's class while Barkin himself skirted his own no-running-in-the-halls policy to get to Testaverde's ASAP. But he didn't think any of that was relevant, or that Ron needed to know, or that he was under any obligation to tell.  
"So, explanation, now!"  
"I, I've got a free period, I was just about to head up to the library…"  
"Then I suggest you go there right now."  
"Yes sir." Ron turned to head up the hall.  
Barkin's gaze now swung over to the cheerleader. "And you, Miss Gardner?"  
She had that deer-in-the-headlights look. "W-, well…"  
Overhearing, and feeling a bit chivalric where his date was concerned, Ron returned to the scene of the crime.

"Mr. Barkin, that was my fault. We passed each other at the door here, and I started a conversation, and she was too nice to just blow me off-- I, I mean to just walk away while I was talking to her. It was totally my fault! Please don't punish her; she's just a victim of circumstance!"

Barkin was surprised at Ron sticking up for someone with whom he'd had no previous known connection other than that of the cheer squad / mascot. He didn't show it, but he was surprised.  
"I see. Are you willing to take whatever punishment I was going to give her for being late to class, Stoppable?"

Ron knew that look Barkin was giving him. He found it unsettling, because he knew what it entailed. He nodded anyway.  
"Very well, then."  
Ron cringed. "Extra homework?"  
"Extra homework."

And so a new couple is born. How will Kim react? How will Bonnie react? How will the rest of the squad react? Hopefully, we'll find out next time.

I say hopefully, because less than six hours before I wrote this, my Dad died. I'm not sure what's going to happen, but I'm going to try to keep this and other things going; I am putting the finishing touches on the next chapter or three and working on a whole warren of plot bunnies. We'll see. Those of you who pray, I'd appreciate y'all's prayers.

Until next time, and even after that, I'm Nftnat, online, on e-mail (AOL), and on AIM. Cy'all.


	4. Queen Bee Buzz

A/N: Hello everyone; it's me again. By my count, from the last chapter I got a PM, an author alert, a favorite author, 3 favorite stories, 4 story alerts, and a lucky 13 reviews. Wow! I don't think I've gotten such a response, ever, even back a few years ago. Thank you, again, seems inadequate.

Before I respond to the reviews, I'd like to thank y'all for all of y'all's kind words, thoughts, prayers, etc. It's nice to know I have friends on here. The funeral's today at 2. Both my older brothers have come in from Ohio and Florida, and are having breakfast in our kitchen as I write this. I think we're going to be all right, although of course it did hit us hard. I don't think it's really hit us yet; there have been a few moments when I almost lost it but it never seemed to be the right time. Didn't some female movie star write a bio titled "I'll Cry Tomorrow"? Yeah, kind of like that. In the meantime, I really want to keep writing. I don't see me stopping doing this, although in the internet, anything can happen. Ask my Brainy Saga fans.

Now...

SC, thanks for saying I've improved. I won't ask for specifics; you've been nice enough to cite examples before. Maybe writing will turn out to be my therapy; who knows. I'm even feeling inspired about my old works like I haven't been in years.

Mr. Average, that's kind of what I was going for, although I'm surprised no one caught the Ron-Go throwaway. Bonnie's tantrum? Coming up.

Joe, thank you. Good you're caught up now. We'll see about Ron Night. (still not official as of Season 3)

CB, I like to think they both show friendship in their own way. Kim does seem to be wired just a little more selfishly than Ron, or is it that he's wired more altruistically. Anyway, even if her reasons for doing the right thing weren't entirely pure, she did get him a date first. Josh? Maybe Ron'll have to have a talk with that boy. Maybe not; no spoilers, in accord with Cousin Larry's wishes.

Motorized-sasquatch, I try. I don't really know going in how it's going to look coming out. I know that I can preview and edit it - and in previous chapters I have had that opportunity - but I just don't know. I'll figure this thing out one of these days if I keep at it.

Comet Moon, yes, family does come first. Bonnie's fangs? Read on, kind of.

Sacred White Phoenix, thank you. Yeah, I saw a vacuum in the Ta-Ron department. I tried to imagine Ron, really tried being him in that sitch; it was easier when my micro recorder was working. It means a lot to know that I got it. I have seen a clueless streak in many people in many shows, including our favorite show. And I'm not the first author to depict Ron as being prone to bouts of gallantry and chivalry.

Thanks, Daxo. Ron is a bit fatalistic about that, as you'll see.

Shortbutginger, thank you too.

Kaiokken, thanks and as I said before, thanks for your concern.

King of Darkness, thank you. I'll try to keep you posted. Like now.

o

Kim Possible and all Kim Possible characters and concepts are created by and copyrighted Schooley-McCorkle and Walt Disney Television Animation, a unit of Walt Disney / Buena Vista Entertainment.

o

**Chapter Four: Queen Bee Buzz **

Lunch turned out to be a productive period on the part of both members of the newly-minted blond couple. Tara took it as an opportunity to get to know Ron better - even if much of what he said passed through the KP filter - and Ron took it as an opportunity to, well, while it would be severe to say that he pumped her for information about the newest hottie, he did ask her about Josh and his activities every time he saw an opening. She didn't mind that much. She knew that Ron was trying to hook Kim up like Kim had done him. And if her id saw an opportunity to eliminate her captain as a threat vis a vis her embryonic status with Ron, well, would she really be blamed so much?

o

As they walked the hall from lunch to the gym (don't ask me why someone scheduled practice right after lunch), they were talking about the upcoming dance, and having a wonderful time too.

"…but I'll do my best to make sure you have a good time, and I AM a bon-diggety dancer."

She was giggling, and not because she was a blonde cheerleader.

Ron continued, "I have shown off my moves on the dance floor before; you might remember."

"Those times you've come with Kim."

"Right, right. Well, this time you'll be able to study the BDD up close and personal."

She rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "How'd I EVER get so lucky?"

Without waiting for Ron to respond, Tara switched subjects.

"Ron, that was really sweet, what you did for me back there."

Would it be redundant to say that Ron was confused?

"What, something I did at lunch?"

"No, before, with Barkin. You took my punishment for me." She was not looking at him with an expression akin to hero-worship, but it didn't miss by much.

"Oh, it was no big. Barkin always gives me extra homework anyway; he would have come up with another excuse if this hadn't happened. Last year I kind of gave him a funny look, and he's had it in for me ever since. I've tried to tell Kim that but she doesn't believe me…"

Tara didn't take note of Ron's ramblings due to a bit of a guilty conscience.

"Ron?"

Ron stopped ranting. "Yes, Tara?"

"I-, I'm sorry that I called you a ditcher."

That brought him up short. "What? When was this?"

"Back at Camp Wan-"

In his haste to head off her saying the camp name, Ron came dangerously close to sudden impact with Tara's mouth before pulling back and settling his hands at his ears. His mouth moved almost as fast.

"The camp which will not be named, you mean? The place of evil?" His voice rose by about an octave in pitch and about 30 decibels in volume, despite some effort to control himself.

Ron's actions and his words combined to impress Tara with the golden-ness of silence. As he finished speaking her mouth closed; afterward she only responded in the form of a nodding head.

By then Ron had calmed down, dropping his hands. "Ah, it's no big, and I'm sorry about that. I really was scared, I mean, who wouldn't be? But I wasn't going to just try to save my own skin while leaving the rest of you to be turned into mutants. So Rufus and I came up with a plan, well, when I stopped running long enough to think."

Rufus was quick to echo Ron's version of events, and here Ron started a bout of long-winded reminiscing.

"Yep, arts and crafts always was my strength, which was why I went to the crafts cabin. Instinct, plus my escape tunnel led directly there. Once we got there, Rufus and I took stock of what we had to work with…"

A minute or two later, their location hadn't changed that much. The speaker had, however; Tara was finally talking again.

"…and so I kissed you."

Ron's face was showing every sign of searching for that particular memory; apparently, he found it. "You did, didn't you?"

Tara nodded, smiling. Ron was smiling too. The both of them froze momentarily, then hesitantly moved together, perhaps for a chance at a real--

RRRIIINNNGGG!!

The warning bell, yet another example of timing. On cue, Rufus hopped out of the pocket to see if Ron was getting to class on time. He saw that whatever his human was doing, it was not that. So he popped back into the pocket and took a circuitous route around his human known only to him, tickling Ron not a little in the process, and bringing him out of a close brush with a violation of the school PDA policy. As Tara watched, the naked mole rat made laps around Ron, emerged from his collar at the back of the neck, ran up the back of his head, over the top, and into the boy's face, in between his face and hers.

"Rufus!" Ron exclaimed.

"(hinc), Hi!" Rufus 'said', waving, before leaping down to the ground, turning a somersault in the process. Then, knowing he had their attention, he tapped his left wrist - where a human usually keeps a watch - and followed it up with an attempt (and a pretty good one) at the first line of the White Rabbit's "I'm Late" song from Alice In Wonderland, complete with pantomime of a pocket watch and cane.

Ron reached out and scooped up his pet, and said, "You're right, buddy." He turned to Tara and said, "We'd better get going if we don't want to be late for cheer practice."

By now Tara too had emerged out of the fog the two blonds had been in, and nodded, affirming, "Right, practice."

Ron re-placed Rufus in his usual nest, and the three of them headed down the hall toward the door to the gym.

o

Meanwhile at said door, the cheer squad captain was going through a bit of drama of her own. The boy she wanted to ask to the dance was on the other side of that door, and she was psyching herself up, again.

_Big breath, then take the plunge. Here goes... _

As she was about to step through the door, though, it was slammed shut.

SLAM!

Suddenly she was faced with the snarky sharky grin of her self-appointed nemesis (at school at least).

"Hi, Kim."

"Bonnie."

"You don't mind if I watch, do you?"

"Watch what?"

"You. Josh. It's so obvious that you're crushing on him."

"It is not!"

"Oh yeah. Gonna ask him to the dance?"

"Why?"

"I think it's great!"

"Really."

"Totally. I get to see you crash and burn."

"Maybe he'll say 'yes'."

"Maybe, but he has said 'no' to girls much higher on the food chain than you."

"Well--"

How this would have continued would have been interesting, but this time...

"You know, I've been wondering about that, Bonnie. Who is higher on this supposed 'food chain' than the head cheerleader?"

That was Ron's voice; Bonnie recognized it immediately. Apparently he was taking this moment to have KP's back, like he always said he did. Bonnie, taking being spoken to like that - by Ron Stoppable of all people! - as an affront to all that was right and decent in her worldview, whirled around to cut down the 'loser'… and lost her tongue when she saw her best friend forever standing next to him.

With no response from his and Kim's personal thorn, Ron continued. "I mean you'd think that the head cheerleader would be higher up this 'food chain' than the other cheerleaders, at any rate." Then he remembered his date, also one of the other cheerleaders, was right there; and turned to hastily add, "No offense, Tara."

She understood. "None taken, Ron."

By now Kim had taken notice of Ron being with Tara, and her face had acquired an insufferable smirk, insufferable if you're Bonnie Rockwaller, that is. Bonnie noticed said smirk on the face of her appointed-by-herself nemesis, and got her tongue back.

"What are YOU doing here, Stoppable?"

"I thought I'd walk Tara here from lunch; since we were both going to practice, we might as well have gone together."

Kim then shoved her oar in. "Bonnie, I know that you still don't like Ron being part of our routines, but the people have spoken. He is the Middleton Mad Dog. He's in!"

That reminded her of something. Looking over at Ron, she inquired, "Not suiting up today, Mad Dog?"

"Not with this class scheduled right after lunch; why do you think the other cheerleaders didn't wear their civvies?" Tara nodded agreement with Ron at that. "Besides, I'd better just watch the new cheers before I figure what I'm going to do in them; there is a LITTLE bit of planning that goes into being the Mad Dog."

But Bonnie wasn't finished.

"We're getting off the point; What I mean is..." Pointing at her best friend and then at Ron to stress her next point, Bonnie continued her questioning. "What are YOU doing with HIM?"

"Ron already told you, Bonnie. He walked me here from lunch."

"You were with him there, too." Bonnie remembered out loud, her crest starting to fall, as it were.

"Well, since we kind of asked each other to the dance, it seemed like the thing to do. You didn't miss me at the cheerleaders table, did you?"

Bonnie had no answer to this. Her jaw was trying to reach the floor - until, that is, her friend charitably reached over and closed it with an audible click.

Kim then decided to cut Bonnie's semi-public torture short, and now that she was the captain again she could do it. "Are we going to stand here talking all day, or are we going to practice?"

Bonnie flinched, then said, "In a minute, Kim."

o

Grabbing her BFF, Bonnie led her into the gym and under the bleachers where they could talk in relative privacy.

"Tara, what do you think you're doing?"

"Wh- what do you mean? I'm, standing here having a conversation with you, I guess?"

"That's not what I mean, and you know it! He's, he's a loser! He's the bottom of the food chain! Someone this far up can't date him, certainly not a cheerleader!"

"Kim's always going to these things with him - though not as dates - and she's the head cheerleader."

"Don't remind me, and that's different! They just don't care about the food chain; it's like what applies to everyone else doesn't apply to her and her friend, the big stuck-up snobbish--"

Look who's talking went through Tara's mind before she spoke up. "Bonnie, just because we're best friends doesn't mean you get to tell me who to date. I don't tell you who to date."

Only a few people - counted on one hand - were ever privileged to see the look that was currently in Bonnie's eyes, including the person currently with her. It was a look of pleading.

"Tara, we've talked about this. You KNOW how fragile the food chain is, how it must be maintained at all costs. The least little thing could tear it apart! And if that happens, those on top will suffer the most, and that means me!"

"HEY!"

It was Crystal, one of the other cheerleaders, who interrupted this tete-a-tete.

"Are you done yet? I have to follow you two for this routine, and trying to allow for two people who aren't there is really throwing me off!"

Tara answered, "Sorry, Crystal. We'll be right there."

"Sure, that's what you said to Kim, right?"

A frustrated Bonnie turned toward Crystal, pointed at Tara, and said - a little louder - than was necessary, "She said we'll be right there, okay? Now go… do something!"

Crystal retreated back to the gym floor in a huff.

Bonnie turned back to Tara. "See? Already the social structure is starting to crumble!"

"Oh, Bonnie. You're being paranoid. It hasn't even gotten out yet that Ron and I are going to the dance together."

"Tara, I wasn't the only one who saw you at lunch."

Tara blushed slightly.

Bonnie continued. "And it's not paranoia; Crys would NEVER have been in my face like that before!"

"You mean like she was at camp?"

"What?"

Tara grabbed Bonnie by the upper arms like the dark-haired cheerleader had done on the night in question, and repeated the outburst from said night: "FORGET the competition; how are we going to survive the NIGHT?! There's something out there!"

Bonnie remembered, and pulled Tara's hands down while saying, "I remember now. But she was scared then, we all were; this is completely different!"

Tara started to walk toward the floor, passing Bonnie as she said, "We can talk this out later; right now we're needed out there." Then she stopped and called back over her shoulder. "You know, Bonnie, you and I have always been best friends, and nothing will ever change that. I love you; you know that. You're like the sister I never had, only better."

Bonnie flinched, thinking of her own sisters.

"…but I have to tell you - and I've always shot straight with you when it's just been us - if the Food Chain died tomorrow, I wouldn't shed any tears. And the consequences probably won't be nearly as bad as you're making them out to be." She allowed that to settle in before continuing, physically and vocally. "Come on; you're leading this routine."

Chastened, Bonnie followed at first, then picking up speed, rushed past Tara so she'd emerge from under the bleachers in the lead, as befit her suddenly precarious social status. Tara let her; her BFF needed this, and she wasn't going to deny it to her.

o

When they hit the floor, they wasted no time in leading off the next cheer. Tara nodded at Ron after making eye contact with him, and he and Rufus manned the boom box. After the routine Ron noticed Tara making her way over to Jessica and Liz. She whispered something that he couldn't hear in between glancing over at him. Jessica and Liz glanced in his direction as well, and then they all giggled.

"They're, looking at me and, giggling. That's good, right, Rufus?"

"Mm, dunno."

"You're as clueless as I am, aren't you?!"

Rufus nods. "hinc, women." That was the last thing he 'said' before disappearing into Kim's backpack.

"You've got that right, buddy." Ron acknowledged, taking a deep breath as his eyes lidded. "Ah, sweet mystery of life. Who can figure them out. Well, at least they're not pointing at me and laughing."

Then he heard Kim calling for the doghouse pyramid. He again hit the right buttons, then settled in to watch. He had an interest in that routine. He knew there was a place in it for the Middleton Mad Dog to work his magic; it was just a matter of figuring out where. Hmm, Kim's on top of course, then Crystal and Tara and Hope, then Liz and Jessica and Marcella and--

Beep! Beep! BEE-Beep!

The obvious spot for the Mad Dog would be running through the middle of the bottom row, in between Marcella and Jessica. Hmm, that would put him underneath Tara--

Beep! Beep! BEE-Beep!

Gotta remember to maintain self-control, never easy to do around the cheer squad. Early ingrained mastery of self: one of the benefits of being BFF with the head cheerleader, who just happens to know 16 styles of kung fu. That position would put the mascot directly underneath Tara, who's directly underneath Kim; and all the attendant free shot temptations. Wouldn't want either the best friend or the date to think the Mad Dog is a bad dog--

Beep! Beep! BEE-Beep!

And with KP and Mankey right there not twenty feet from each other, would someone just ask someone to the dance already! He was starting to regret not bringing that bullhorn for the purpose of getting people's attention; then he could bring those two crazy kids together, maybe something like, 'Kim Possible, Josh Mankey, do either of you have a problem with going to the dance with the other?'

Beep! Beep! BEE-Beep!

And he had intended to bring that bullhorn too, but now that he had a date, what was the point? Besides, Tara was with him; it might have been a sitch to explain. Hm, one of the disadvantages of actually having a social life. Oh we--

Beep! Beep! BEE-Beep!

"OUCH!! Rufus, what are you--?"

What Rufus was doing was getting tired of waiting. The Kimmunicator was with him in Kim's backpack, and Wade's repeated pages were about to drive the mole rat batty. He'd been shoving it in Ron's face, for all the good it did. The pinch was the last resort before taking it to Kim himself. Still a bit tweaked with his buddy, Ron turned the Kimmunicator on as he stood, and there was the ten-year-old genius with his usual Big Slurp, and almost his usual cheery expression.

"Go, Wade."

"Ron, I need to speak with Kim."

Ron started to walk, slowly. "Headed in her direction even as we speak. Got a lead on Drakken?"

"Yep. Looks like you guys are headed to the Alps."

"His Alpine lair? Yeah, I guess it was about time we hit that one."

"Right. What was taking so long?"

"They're doing the pyramid; gotta take it easy, Wade. Don't want to surprise them, could cause a tumble."

"I mean what was taking so long to answer; I've been calling you for a solid minute at least!"

"I was, concentrating."

"On what, the pyramid?"

"Of course. The Middleton Mad Dog is now the showstopper of the squad. I've got to know my role, and for that, I've got to plan my role, which means studying the formations in action. This IS the Doghouse Pyramid, after all; there has to be a dog in the doghouse."

Wade only thought he wasn't fooled. "Still haven't gotten a date, huh?"

"That's where you're wrong, Wade. I have a date with the lovely Tara."

o

While Wade was occupied with a spit take that would have made Danny Thomas proud (ask your grandparents), Ron was slowly approaching the pyramid. This did not go unnoticed to the new co-captain, who was spotting for this formation. She was quick to intercept him.

"Now what are you doing, Loser?"

"I'm trying to get Kim's attention. A sitch has come up in the Alps, and KP and I have to jet-- Bonnie, watch out; you're getting too close!"

"Don't tell me what to do, Stoppable!" Bonnie had been a bit random all during practice - the main reason she was currently spotting - and she'd taken all that she could stand now. Royally tweaked as only the Queen Bee can be, she wasn't paying as much attention to where she was in relation to the Pyramid as she otherwise might have.

"Bonnie! Kim!" Ron called over in desperation to warn the others.

Kim heard him, for all the good it did. "Ron?"

In addition to everything else, that was just a little bit more than the pyramid could take. Ron saw it and knew what was coming; he also knew he was powerless to do anything but watch and scream, "KP!"

The pyramid teetered, then toppled, with the topmost member tearing through the banner Josh was in the act of hanging.

The others had a good view of what was happening on the floor, and knew who was responsible. "Bonnie!" all but Tara cried.

Being the nice guy he was, Ron tried to shift the blame as he took the most direct route to his BFF without stepping on anyone, "Whoops! Sorry, my bad."

Again minus Tara, the squad cried again, "Ron!"

But by now Ron had reached Kim, and was pulling her out of the top of what had been the pyramid. Kim was tweaked, but she wasn't sure at whom. "Ron?"

Ron thrust the Kimmunicator in her face. "Wade."

Kim managed to get a grip on the device and almost growled, "Wade?"

Wade had limited experience with Kim when she looked and sounded like that, and he preferred to keep it that way. Suitably cowed, he meekly squeaked out, "Kim? Um, bad timing?"

"Ferociously bad. What's the sitch?"

"What? Oh, oh yeah! Hot tip on the Nakasumi heist. Can you, um, cut practice?"

Kim looked back at the cheerleaders stacked like cordwood after a tornado, then over at a decidedly unhappy Josh holding the remains of the banner he'd worked so hard on, and decided she needed to get away from it all and kick some bad guy backside.

"I'd rather be anywhere but here."

o

A/N: And so ends chapter four. What's next? Well, unless Heinrich's Snow Cat can fly over travel water, they didn't take it for the whole trip, right? What happened in between here and there? Sounded like another hole to be filled. I hope to show y'all next time. And if you want to get in touch me, I'm Nftnat, online, on e-mail (AOL), and on AIM. Until then.


	5. Thoughts on a Plane and Snow Cat

A/N: Hello again, everyone

A/N: Hello again, everyone. Here's the next chapter of my TaRoniverse take on Crush. As y'all already know we're going to the Alps for this one, but I'm going to concentrate - not so much on the fight - but on them getting there and back. Heinrich didn't drive them all the way from Middleton, so there had to be either planes or boats to and fro; I'm opting for the planes. So what happened on the flights? Let's see. Oh, and the scene on the Snow Cat is reproduced almost as is.

As to the reviews, there's eight this time, also three story alerts and one favorite story. One of you even noticed one of my Rugrats stories, to which I must return soon. But to do my usual responses.

CB73, I loved putting together the Bonnie-Tara scenes as much as y'all loved reading them. This is not over. Yes, Ron is in the habit of taking the fall; maybe his new relationship will boost his self-esteem. But not before he gives a double dose of help to Kim.

Samurai (do I call you Sam?), as I've said this is my version of Crush. It's a good thing that I got this far into this before I found the pair of K-J / R-T stories by Captain Kodak; he's one of those superior writers who make such as me to almost despair of ever being as good. It will be a challenge to continue this storyline without cribbing from the Captain, but I'm just stubborn enough to try. And Tara might have an issue or two with the missions, but not in the way you say. I'll get to that in the next story, and yes, there will be more stories after this one.

Mr. Average, I thank you for the support as well as the review. When I said I almost lost it, I was referring to crying; I took care of that last Saturday when I was cleaning the church where my Dad pastored for my 35 years; I was all alone so I let go. I would never think of doing anything desperate, but I do appreciate your concern.

As to your review, Ron knows better than to let any 'bad dog' that might be there out of his inner cage. His inner Zorpox hasn't been accessed yet, and we'll see if it ever is. Can you tell I loved writing Bonnie's reaction? 'Easily the best'? Well, there's nowhere to go from there but down, unless I keep topping myself. Here's hoping.

Star Reader, yes, there's not enough Ron-Tara; there's not enough Tara! It's like the show just dropped her in the fourth season, for which I have a theory or two which will come up in my canon and future fics. Yori? Well, hmm… Maybe I'll leave that up to others, maybe not. I did read Ron In Shining Armour, and the rest of ScareGlow's fics. ScareGlow, you write some good stuff.

King of Darkness, I'm trying to keep it up, I am trying.

Lonestarr, am I glad to hear from you, although I'll have to watch Wild Things to know what you were talking about there. I'm glad to see that I'm not the only trying to carry the Ron-Tara banner; I was very glad to find your Blondes Have More Fun community, and I'd better try to figure out how to put this story on there. I would be privileged to have a place with the works I mentioned above. As to Ron's cluelessness, maybe he's holding back on purpose for Kim, as many an author has theorized. He does support her any way he can. And I agree about the food chain; we'll have more in store on that subject.

Ah, campy, the beta of champions; you're another one I was looking forward to hearing from. I'm glad you think this is cute.

Sacred White Phoenix, agreed about Bonnie's shock. Tara is a good choice, and thanks for your patience. I see some fics on here updating almost every day and I wonder how they have lives. I just about don't and I know I'm busy. Well, here's the next chapter.

O

Kim Possible and all Kim Possible characters and concepts are copyright Schooley-McCorkle and Walt Disney Television Animation, a unit of Walt Disney / Buena Vista Entertainment.

**Chapter 5: Thoughts On a Plane, and In a Snow Cat **

Minutes later found Kim and Ron in another cargo hold of another plane. Their parachutes were in place, and soon they'd be plummeting toward a location just outside of Innsbruck, where Heinrich and his SnowCat were waiting to take them the next leg of the trip before they'd snowboard the rest of the way. Kim was on her feet while Ron was on his back, looking up at the ceiling of the aircraft. His legs were propped up on a bundle of cargo; he hadn't taken the trouble to find out just what.  
Kim started to walk toward the cabin. "Guess I'd better touch base with the pilot."  
His hands clasped behind his head, Ron nodded, eyes shut. "Yeah, they really like it when you thank them for the lift, with extra points for calling them by name. Gives them the chance to say, 'It's the least I could do, after you saved me from' whatever you saved them from."  
Kim halted and turned a gimlet eye on her BFF. "Blasé much?"  
Ron shrugged.  
"Ron, I know we say it's no big, but--"  
"Hey, without the Ron-man's sparkling conversation skills, they do tend to blur together. After awhile, one cargo hold is the same as another."

O

Kim had opened her mouth to respond without taking the time to think of a response. Before she could, Ron righted himself physically and he stuck a hand out toward her. "If you're going to be busy up front, can I borrow the Kimmunicator?"  
Eyebrows elevated. "Reason?"  
"Barkin saddled me with extra homework again--"  
"You still think he has it in for you?"  
"I know what I know, KP. Anyway, I figured if you were going to be a while, I might as well try to get a bit of a jump on it, you know?"  
Kim was stunned at this display of self-starting from her slacker BF, but only allowed her face to show it for a second or two, or three. Well, maybe four. Eventually, though, she allowed her expression to dissolve into a warm smile. "That's my potential boy."  
So saying, she dug the Kimmunicator out of her pocket and handed it to Ron, then she dug a pair of binoculars out of another pocket. "And if I need to talk with Wade while you're busy, I can call him on these."  
That piqued Ron's interest, causing him to sit up, then stand, almost immediately. He reached for the binoculars. "New toys? Gravy!"  
Kim swung the hand holding the binoculars out of his reach as she looked at him and intoned, "Elastic. Constricting. Agent."  
Reminded of one of the many times he literally got a faceful of something or other, Ron was suitably cowed.  
Kim swung the binoculars closer to Ron while still keeping them at a distance. "You can look, but don't touch."  
Ron nodded.  
Kim started pointing to certain points of interest. "They're electronic, with infrared, and a built-in Kimmunicator."  
"Coolio!" He started to reach for it again.  
Which caused her to yank it back out of his reach. "Uh-uh! Now you get started on that homework, and I'll check with the crew up front."  
Obediently, he started to get some papers out of his backpack. "Right. And then it's 'Look out, Drakken'."  
"Right." she agreed as she started to walk away from him. Still walking, she called out behind her, "And it won't have anything to do with trying to steal Christmas."  
That brought Ron's head up, with a frown attached. "I thought you said that subject was closed."  
"It is." she said as she stepped through the door into the cabin, cutting off further discussion.

O

"Kim! Guhhh!" Frustrated, Ron threw his head back - eyes closed - then started shaking it in disbelief. Rufus chose that moment to pop out of his 'home' on his human's person.

Ron noticed, and started a conversation. "Can you believe her? She says the subject's closed, then SHE brings it up. If I'd brought it up she'd have said the subject was closed, but SHE gets a parting shot in with impunity." That brought him up short. "Whoa, school word!"  
"Uh-huh." Rufus agreed.  
Then Ron went back to his complaint. "And then she walks off and closes the door on her last word, so I can't even respond. Like I don't get enough of that from Mom."  
Rufus nodded his head. "Not fair!" he squeaked out.  
"You've got that right." Ron nodded, before sighing and shrugging. "Eh, what can you do?" Then he changed the subject.  
"So, did you remember to bring your coat, little buddy?"  
Rufus gasped, then emitted an "Uh-oh!"  
"Rufus! I told you it's going to be cold down there in the Alps. You have your winter wrap in my locker for just that reason!"  
"Sorry." came from the unprepared naked mole rat as he hung his head.  
But Ron could not stay mad at him. He started petting the head of his pet.  
"Oh, now, it'll be all right; I'll try to work something out for you, maybe part of a blanket or a scarf or something…"  
Ron trailed off for about half a second before getting down to business. He brought up the Kimmunicator and activated it. "Wade."  
The 'smart guy' was surprised - for the second time that day - at seeing Ron on the other end. "Ron? Where's Kim?"  
That did not make Ron happy, and he snipped, "She's up front; if you really want to talk to her you can try on the 'nocs."  
"'nocs'?"  
"Binoculars. But that's not important. There's something else, something that I'd rather keep Kim out of."  
Wade's face took on a sour expression. "Ron, if this is about tutoring you - in whatever - the answer's still no. And please don't have Kim ask me; she WILL pull out the Pout, and--"  
"Wade, man to man, I would never ask her to do that. I know all too well that no man can resist that pout. And this isn't about tutoring."  
Wade was relieved, but still wary. "Okay, then what's the sitch?"  
Ron smiled at hearing Kim's tag line from someone else. "It's about Kim."  
"Something wrong?"  
"I'll say something's wrong! She hasn't asked Josh to the dance yet! It's getting embarrassing; even I have a date to the dance and she doesn't! And the dance is tomorrow!"  
Wade looked sardonically on the screen on which Ron was. "Ron, you do know that puberty hasn't hit me yet. I'm not interested in teen dances."  
"But we ARE interested in keeping Kim happy."  
That widened the genius' eyes for a split second. "What do you want?"  
Ron started to scratch the back of his head. "I thought you might be able to, I don't know, tie into the school security cameras or GPS or something to see where Josh is, then you cold give Kim the heads-up when he's coming."  
Wade's brows lowered. He poised his hands over what might have been the appropriate keyboard, then hesitated. "I don't know. I'll have to run this by Kim first."  
"That's good enough for me." With that, Ron was about to put the Kimmunicator in a pocket on his person, but he was interrupted by a noise coming from it.  
"Mm-hmm." That was Wade clearing his throat.  
Ron brought the Kimmunicator back up in front of his face. "What?"  
"Well, aren't you going to compliment me like Kim usually does?"  
Ron briefly considered an eye roll before deciding against it. "Oh yeah, sorry, Wade. Um, you rock."  
"Thanks. Oh, and Ron?"  
"Yes?"  
"Don't forget your homework." With that, and a belly laugh, Wade faded out.  
Now Ron afforded himself the eye roll, and a head shake to go with it. "He's such a pre-teen sometimes." he muttered as he packed to leave the plane.  
"Uh-huh." Rufus nodded agreement, just before the door to the cabin opened.  
It was Kim. It was time to jump.

O

A graceful landing for Kim - and a tumble for Ron - later found the two teens plus mole rat inside a Snow Cat, an Arctic / Alpine / wherever-else-the-snow-can-be-measured-in-feet transport belonging to a certain red-bearded Austrian named Heinrich.  
It was comfortable enough inside if you're bundled up, and they were, except for Rufus. As the mole rat shivered in the cold, Ron came to his rescue with part of a scarf, and a reprimand.  
"I told you to bring a jacket, Rufus. Naked and snow just don't mix."  
With Rufus' short-term comfort seen to, Kim called Ron back into sharing her mission mode. "Okay, let's recap what we know."  
"Check." Ron averred as he started to pull pages of something out of his backpack, starting with a picture. "Subject: Joshua Wendell Mankey."  
"I meant about Drakken's Alpine lair."  
"Oh… yeah, okay, I got nuttin'." he admitted as he started to put the paperwork back.  
That is, until Kim grabbed it. "Wait, his middle name is 'Wendell'?"  
"Surprisingly, yes."  
"Just where do you get your research from?"  
"Bonnie, via Tara."  
"Really?"  
"You know, I didn't think I'd ever be thankful for the Food Chain, but it turns out it does have its uses."  
"What else do you have?"  
"Well, Mankey has rejected invitations to the Spirit Week dance from the following:" He showed pictures of girls from school to her as he called their names. "Courtney Loupe, Maria Rodriguez, Natasha Putin, Julia Roberts - no relation - and of course, Bonnie Rockwaller." That last one was a drawing, not a picture, as Ron explained. "No current photo was available."  
Kim grabbed the drawing as well. "Josh spiked Bonnie?"  
Ron smiled at that. "Oh yeah. Hearing that alone was reason enough for getting a date with Tara, not that there aren't plenty of other reasons. You know, dating is actually a grand and glorious thing. Or you would know if you ever get up the nerve to ask him!" he finished as he grabbed Josh's picture again and thrust it in his friend's face.  
"Ron--! Hold it." she interrupted herself, pushing the picture of Josh down, as the Kimmunicator went off. After searching her person, she realized it was coming from Ron, who still had the Kimmunicator apparently.  
She looked at him, as he had the appropriate reaction, in concert with pulling the Kimmunicator out of his pocket and handing it to her. "Oh, here. Although you could take this chance to field test your 'nocs."  
That cocked her eyebrows. "'Nocs'?"  
"Binoculars, but that's not important right now."  
Deciding to put off field testing the 'nocs' until she was actually in the field - seat-of-the-pants thinking at its finest - Kim went with the regular Kimmunicator as proferred to her by Ron. "Yes, Wade?"  
"Kim, would this be a good time to tell you of Ron's idea of monitoring Josh and letting you know when he's getting close to you?"  
Kim shot a surprised look at Ron, who grinned and shrugged. "Yes, it would. Can you do that?"  
"I can tap into the GPS satellite and have a fix on him wherever he goes; no big."  
Kim got a big smile on her face. "Thanks, Wade."  
"Does that mean you want me to do it?"  
"Please and thank you."  
As she put away the Kimmunicator, she smiled at Ron. "And thank you, too."  
A very slight blush accompanied his smile as he again shrugged. "Oh, it was no big."  
Ron was right; he and Wade did very much want to keep Kim happy.

O

Just then, the Snow Cat came to a stop.  
"Okay, kids, we're here." Heinrich called from the cab.  
As she and Ron disembarked, Kim made her usual nice small talk. "Thanks for the lift, Heinrich."  
As Heinrich handed her snow board to her and patted her on the head - to which she politely submitted - he held up his end of the usual conversation. "Oh, Kim, you silly! It's the least I could do after you saved our village from that avalanche last year."  
"No big."  
Then Heinrich's gaze shifted to Ron. After boring a hole in him with his eyes, he handed him his snow board with a sniff, and resumed his seat in the Snow Cat to drive it back to its point of origin.  
Puzzled, Ron turned to Kim. "I get the feeling Heinrich is tweaked with me about something."  
"Gee, do you think it might have something to do with you starting that avalanche last year?"  
"Hey, that could have happened to anyone!"  
"Right, Ron. Of course it could have."

O

Her snowboard in place, Kim turned her back on her best friend for the upcoming thrill ride to just outside the lair. Before she started, though, she heard his voice.

"KP? A little help here?"

She heard him from behind her and, wondering how the sidekick was in trouble this time, turned around. She saw him trying to start his board, or that's what she thought he must be trying to do. What it looked like was an exercise in futility ending in him actually bouncing his board crosswise and eventually falling over, planting his fists in the snow. She fought to keep herself from laughing when she heard him whispering to Rufus, "Not a word" as she approached him.

Helping him right himself, she asked, "Snowboard much?"

"Not really. I just don't have the hang of it."  
"You're kidding! Ron, the class ski trip is just weeks away; how you will handle yourself if you can't snowboard?"

"Um, ski? That's in the trip's name, right?"

"Oh, Ron. Here."

With that Kim brought her snowboard alongside Ron's and pressed a switch. Bars came out of both pieces of sports equipment, linking them.

Ron was impressed. "Tandem snowboards, just in case. Wade rocks out loud!", he said, getting a bit loud himself.

Kim had her hand over his mouth before he could say another word. "But not too loud; wouldn't want to start another avalanche. Right, Ron?"

Meekly and mutely, Ron nodded.

That danger past, Kim's intense look was replaced by the friendly one she usually used on her best friend. "Good. Now just leave the driving to me, and do what I do."

"But how am I going to do what you do if I'm to leave the driving to you? Wouldn't I have to do some driving too?"

"Ron!"

He nodded in assent. "Right, copycat protocol, got it."

She nodded as well, then prepared to start shushing. Silently counting down, she held up three fingers, then two, then one, and then…

WHOOSH!

O

The trip to the outskirts of the lair passed without incident; Ron was adept at monkey-see-monkey-do when it came to following Kim, though don't call it that around him! As she brought the two of them to a stop on a cliff overlooking the lair, she noticed some unusual towers scattered all around the place through her special binoculars. Pressing the button that activated the Kimmunicator, she was fully into 'mission mode'.

"Talk to me, Wade."  
"This is unquestionably Drakken's latest lair. I've hacked into the security system, but it's tight. (sigh) Can't shut down the sensors… but I COULD juice the frequency so you can see them."  
"Please and thank you."

Wade went to work, and in due time a network of red lines was apparent between the towers, basically connecting them every which way. It was a laser grid impossible to get through, well, impossible unless you've already ssafely navigated the infamous McHenry laser grid.

She turned to Ron. "Okay, so we can't touch the red lines."

He nodded assent.

Turning back, she started the snowboards for the final leg of their journey.

O

A/N: I was going to put in one more scene, but I think I'll leave it like that. We'll get to the snow and the tripping of the laser and so forth next time. I'll also try to wrap this story up and start on the next one, which will focus more on Tara. That means the next chapter will have a recap of the fight - kind of - the flight back, the scene in the janitor's closet, and my own twist on how it's resolved. You'll see. Until then, I'm Nftnat, online, on e-mail (AOL), and on AIM. Good night, y'all.


	6. AfterAction Review

A/N: Here we are with the latest chapter, which has gained two favorite stories, two story alerts and one favorite author since last time; all of which I heartily appreciate. I guess such reactions are plateauing, which is probably just as well since this is the next to the last chapter of this story, though not of this storyline. I meant for this to be the last chapter, but it got too big. Tara's talk with Bonnie and Kim thinking while looking at Ron practically wrote themselves; Kim talking with Ron and what followed was harder.

One thing, about giving Tara the last name of Gardner. I know that most stories in which her last name is given give her the last name of either Matthews or King (isn't there a voice actor by that name? Lol). However, as someone pointed out on the message boards, she was sitting next to Zita Flores in Graduation. That would mean that alphabetically her name would be a little farther on that Flores, but not too much. I'd considered Fox, Franklin, and even my name, Freeman. But I decided to go with Gardner; dunno why.

If it hadn't been for Bonding, I would have no idea of Bonnie's house at all. As it is I'm having to make up Tara's house and family out of whole cloth; wait'll you see what relative I give her. It's someone who's only been in one episode.

Now for the reviews.

Thank you, King of Darkness.

Joe, the reason the "steal Christmas" discussion seemed a bit heavy-handed was that I realized too late that I hadn't included Ron's theory or Kim's reaction to it. I was trying to make up for that, and I admit I could have done a better job.

Kaiokken, thank you.

Comet Moon, I couldn't agree more.

Mr. Average, in the words of Frank Bartles, thank you for your support. I'll get to the dance next time. I'm not really sure to what extent I'll go into the actual events of the dance itself, but keep in mind that I didn't have half of the stuff in this chapter in mind when I sent in the last chapter. We'll see.

Sacred White Phoenix, turnabout is fair play. That's Kim & Ron for you. They might not always see eye to eye, they might have their occasional argument (steal Christmas, the class president campaign), but they're always best friends and they always have each other's backs. As to the fight, well, here we go, such as it is.

Thank you, Lonestarr. Yes, I try to ref the episode where I can, although not in this chapter. You'll see.

Thank you, panda0031698. I'm glad to hear that I kept them in character. I hope that continues. While I'm a K/R traditionalist, I have a thing for R/T and don't see nearly enough of it. I've had these ideas in my mind for some time and thought it was high time to share them. I will have some R/T fluffiness next chapter, but first I feel it necessary to lay a little more groundwork with a little bit of K/R and even B/T. No, not that; you'll see.

O

Kim Possible and all Kim Possible characters and concepts are created by and copyrighted Schooley-McCorkle and Walt Disney Television Animation, a unit of Walt Disney Inc. / Buena Vista Entertainment.

Todd Helton is copyright himself.

O

**Chapter Six: After-Action Review **

Kim, being at one end, had managed to slip out fairly quickly, leaving the other cheerleaders in the pyramid to untangle themselves as best they could.

With Kim and Ron on the mission, leadership of the squad fell to the new co-captain, Bonnie Rockwaller. As soon as everyone had gotten themselves straightened out, she took charge.

"All right, let's try that pyramid again. Maggie, get the music."

"But Bonnie, I'm IN the pyramid!"

That made Bonnie hesitate, for a second. Then her scowl deepened as one hand went to her face, to the accompaniment of a growl.

"Gr-r-r-r-r! THOSE two! Leaving us two people short because of their 'mission'. (and yes, she made the air quotes with her hands) One of you spotters, hit the music. The rest of you, you know what you're supposed to do; let's do this!"

As the squad moved into position, Tara fought the urge to shake her head, close her eyes, or even sigh; that would only undermine her best friend. Even so, she knew that this was going to be a long practice.

O

Another mission, another plane  
Another plot foiled, another… wait a minute.

Cute introductions aside, it was hours later. Kim & Ron had foiled the bad guys again, and were on their way back to Middleton in another cargo plane. Team Possible was dead tired, but they had done it, again. Kim had done anything, as usual, until she'd frozen up when dead in the sights of that giant robot ray gun. Wade had come to the rescue, until Shego blasted the Kimmunicator - or that's how it seemed at the time, the little handheld's tough - and Ron…

Ron…

As she turned her head to look at the sleeping form of her compatriot, comfortably seated next to her, she remembered his unique battle strategies and tactics. There was no reason any of them should have worked, but they did…

"_Ron, what were you thinking, tripping a sensor alarm on purpose?!" _

_"I was thinking we had to get into the bad man's lair, and I didn't hear you or Wade coming up with any ideas. I figured this was the quickest way in." _

_"Yeah, only we're surrounded by Drakken's henchmen, all armed with those, those…" _

_"What are those things called, anyway? Is there even a name for them? Stun sticks? Staffs? Spears? Power, energy—" _

_"I'm sure Drakken will be happy to tell you what he's named them." _

_"He does like to brag about his inventions, doesn't he? That reminds me, where is Drakken? Do you think he's waiting to make a big entrance? … Kim? … Kim? … " _

_(ZAP!) _

_"Ah, Shego. Okay, never mind me, I'll just, take on all of these henchmen, again… Um, could one of you guys give us a boost?" _

_(SIZZLE!) _

All right, his methods were unorthodox, but again, they did work. He took out the henchmen without throwing a punch, thanks to that stink formula / lip gloss. And for someone with a reputation of being clumsy, he caught and fielded it back to her like a pro; could Todd Helton have done better? And that flying kick, trying to knock Drakken out of the cockpit or whatever it was of the ersatz assembly line, well, that took guts.

As she looked at him with affection, he stirred in his sleep, murmuring something about saving Christmas. Her expression shifted slightly to an amused grimace at his clinging to that theory even in his sleep. The big kid. His family - being Jewish - didn't even observe Christmas! Of course he did; he spent every Christmas with her family for as long as his family would allow. She frowned as she contemplated the prospect of getting Bueno Bucks again this year.

"Kim?"

She was startled out of her reverie at his simple question, in the form of her name. Looking at him, he appeared to be asleep. Maybe he was and was just mumbling in his sleep.

Even so, Kim decided to talk with him even as he was and see where it led.

"Yes, Ron?"

"Ask… Josh… a'ready…"

A smile came to her face, and tears to her eyes. Even in his sleep, Ron was having her back! A true friend, always encouraging her. Sadly shaking her head, and not even yet sure if he could really understand her in his current state, she responded, "I just don't know if I can, Ron." Her voice broke toward the end of that statement.

Whether or not Ron really understood, he continued to respond as though he did. He continued to mumble. "Aww…

Don't cry… You… can do… e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e…"

And he was sound asleep again. Kim's smile reverted to affectionate, and it broadened.

O

Meanwhile, in a very modest house - you wouldn't know it from the high standards of some of the occupants - a phone conversation was taking place. From her room - what she'd dubbed the Rose Room due to the overwhelming color scheme - one Bonnie Rockwaller had reached out and touched her best friend - a friend in a rather more expansive house - whose bedroom had a baby blue color scheme. They were now talking as they were removing nail polish from their toes (She still couldn't figure out how Tara managed to do it with her legs poised Indian-style, even after all the times she'd witnessed her doing it). Bonnie dipped into the bottle one more time and switched feet as she continued the conversation.

"Look, so he saved us; that doesn't mean you have to date him. Just send him a thank-you note and get on with your life!"

Tara frowned as she dipped the brush / lid into her bottle of acetone; her friend could be so cavalier sometimes. "That's not why I'm doing this, and you know it!"

Bonnie groaned; she knew this tone of voice, but decided to pursue the argument anyway. "Tara, how many times have we talked about this?"

"Enough times for you to know how I feel about him."

"You said you wouldn't date him!" Bonnie exclaimed, brandishing her nail brush/lid before screwing it on the bottle.

Tara was in a similar position, gesturing with the implement in her hand. "I said I wouldn't go after him. It's not my fault Kim is so clueless she doesn't know what she has right under her nose, to the point where she pushed him right into my lap. Just a minute."

She was now closing the lid on her bottle. Having done that, she bent over at the waist to stow the bottle in its usual compartment underneath her bed. Righting herself into her previous position, she then switched the phone to her other hand and continued, in the same calm, almost serene tone of voice she had been using.

"Where was I? Oh yeah. Kim pushed him at me so I didn't go after him. But now that I have him, I'm not letting him go."

Bonnie was now on her feet, walking over to her dresser where she kept her nail polish remover while holding her head (she could feel a headache start to come on as she'd finished). Returning it to its usual spot, she switched the phone from one hand to the other. Then, walking back to her bed with an arm akimbo, she continued her end of the conversation.

"And how long do you think it will last? A week? A month?"

Tara was frowning in stubbornness now, her face scrunched up with a bit of a pout. Anyone who might have seen it would have agreed that it was absolutely adorable. "That's a week or a month longer than I'd have him otherwise."

Bonnie had now reached her bed. She reclined upon it, made herself comfortable, and continued the verbal riposting.

"And what about Kimmie? You know he's her little lap dog; you know he's hers, period. Next time she calls him, he'll go running back to her, and I don't just mean for missions, for saving the world." Bonnie finished in a sing-song voice. Then, turning on the emotion, she got serious. "And you'll be left alone. They'll hurt you. You know this."

A hesitation was as much as heard on the line; Bonnie knew from experience that this meant Tara looked away momentarily while softly sniffing. One sniff, usually.

"I know. But this is my chance with him; I have to take it."

Bonnie sighed, and her head dropped into the hand not holding her phone.

"Oh, Tara. Why do you think I've been talking him down, trying to make him seem like a loser in your eyes and the eyes of everyone else? It's because I see how those eyes light up whenever he's around, or even when his name is mentioned. And I know you're just setting yourself up for heartache later."

Hesitation again, and then Tara finally spoke.

"I'll just have to deal with that when it comes."

O

In the police and the military, every time someone sees action, they have to write a report on it afterward. That is a fact of life in those lines of work. It's called various things - performance critique, performance review, after-action review, after-action report, whatever. In the police, it's slightly more thorough; an officer has to account for every bullet fired.

After a certain two teenagers had started to miss classes on a regular basis in order to save the world, those two had been summoned to a private meeting with their assistant principal, a man who had a background in the military. He had acquainted them with that particular military tradition. He had then told them that, while he heartily approved of their exploits when same meant saving the world, there had to be an accounting of their actions afterwards. There had to be written evidence of their 'missions', if for no other reason to appease anyone who questioned why their continued absences were allowed to slide.

Accordingly, he gave them a very special continuing assignment: when they came back from a mission, at the first available opportunity they would each write a full report on same in triplicate, one copy of which would be turned in to the aforesaid assistant principal on the next school day soonest. That and making up all missed work, assignments, homework, et al would get them off the hook with him, and him off the hook with his bosses in the educational system. He had told them it was something they would have to get used to; in adulthood at least half of whatever career they went into was going to be paperwork.

So it was that late on the night before the Spirit Dance, those two teens were in their rooms, at their computers, composing their After-Action Reviews.

As Kim was Kim-posing her version of the events she and Ron had lived through that very day, as she had experienced them, she was fighting drowsiness…

"…_Ron's 'flying kick', though well-intentioned, was arrested as Drakken operated an appendage to grab Ron by one leg and suspend him upside-down. When that happened his pocket containing Rufus opened and Rufus fell out and down. Thinking of saving my teammate, I used my grappling gun, secured it, and swung past, catching him on the fly, and landing on top of the 'robot' behind Drakken. Drakken operated the robot arms to knock me off. I managed to stay out of reach, using my martial arts and cheerleading skills…" _

Somewhere along the way, Kim momentarily took a catnap, her head lolling backward, then forward. As her consciousness made a pit stop in REM-land, her memories of her most recent experience, the subject of her report and therefore that which was foremost in her mind, slid around to the back where her subconscious was and became the stuff dreams are made of.

"_You should have stuck to baby-sitting… What made you think an ordinary teenager could possibly defeat me?" _

In a deer-in-headlights cliché, she found that she couldn't move; she'd frozen up, just staring into the bright light of that giant ray gun. A light that would be the last thing she would ever see in this lifetime. And all she could do was stay there in a crouch, transfixed, and look wide-eyed at what would be her do--

O

"What about you, Bonnie? I guess we'll be seeing you and Brick at the dance."

Tara could hear the breath hitch in her friend's trachea over the phone. She knew what that meant, kind of.

"Bonnie?"

"No, Brick and I broke up." was what Tara managed to drag out of an embarrassed Queen Bee.

Now Tara was the one with a hand on a hip; this time she didn't bother to try to stifle her groan. "Again? This makes, what, three times?"

"Tara…" she could hear the note of warning.

"Okay, I won't comment. But then who are you coming with?"

"Well…" Bonnie hesitated.

Tara rolled her eyes. "Oh, no! Bonnie, tell me you have a date."

"You're not going to go to the dance alone?!"

"No, of course not!" Bonnie blustered. "I have a date, I, I just haven't nailed him down yet."

"Bonnie! The dance is tomorrow!" Tara almost shouted, being careful to keep it down for the sake of the others in the house.

"I know that, Tara."

The blonde sighed before continuing. "Well, don't keep me in suspense; who is it?"

Bonnie just continued to hesitate, but she managed to string the words together. "I was going to ask Josh."

By now Tara was lying on her bed, but a half-second later, she wasn't.

"Josh?! But he already spiked you!"

"I know that!" Bonnie growled. "But I'm going to ask him again; he'll say yes."

Now Tara was doing the head-shaking-with-the-eyes-closed thing.

"Oh, Bonnie. Why don't you just break down and take Brick back; you always do it anyway." She expostulated as her other hand became a full part of the argument.

"I do not!"

"Bonnie, it's me; I know. Even when Kim got him on the rebound, it wasn't a week before you had him having you on his arm again."

"Tara, maybe you haven't noticed, but the words 'Property of Bonnie Rockwaller' are not exactly tattooed on his forehead!"

"They might as well be. He's been yours since Amelia dumped him and you scooped him up last year."

O

The dream / flashback abruptly ended as Kim's head landed on her computer desk.

"UNH!"

Awakening with a start, her eyes flew open briefly, before she closed them back with authority and shook her head, trying to clear it of the current crop of cobwebs and collect her thoughts. She snatched a sip or two of coffee from the mug she kept on the far side of her computer desk - safe from doing damage to the computer in case of an accidental spill - and checked the screen. Fortunately, her head hadn't landed on the keyboard.

She turned to the side for another sip of coffee, then decided she needed a bit of a break. Turning back to her computer, she went online to check her e-mail.

There was nothing of consequence. She wasn't expecting any calls for help as she & Ron had just come back from a tough mission, and Wade was very good with keeping the requests at bay at such times even if there had been any. Besides, if there had been anything to warrant their immediate attention, Wade would have just called her on the Kimmunicator.

As she was about to sign off, she noticed Ron was also online. In scant seconds she'd sent him an IM, and in scanter seconds he'd responded.

O

Finally, the phone conversation had wound down between the co-captain of the cheerleading squad and her BFF; Bonnie had pleaded drowsiness and a bit of a headache. Tara had pleaded with Bonnie to take Brick back, or at least to talk with him. Bonnie, reacting to the latter suggestion, reminded her friend who they were talking about; but eventually promised she would at least think about it.

With that done and the conversation concluded - by then she was again ambulatory - Tara placed the phone in its cradle and turned back toward her bed. In the line of sight mid-turn was her computer. On a whim, she decided to check her e-mail.

Nothing new since that afternoon; it had been a slow day online. Glancing at her buddy list she noticed the absence of bonniethequeen, which meant that her friend probably was in bed by now.

As she was about to sign off, though, she glanced again at her buddy list, which she hardly ever used. One name stuck out.

_"'Candoanything'? Hmm, could it be…?" _

o

Neverbenormal: Hey, KP.

Candoanything: Ron. You are working and not gaming, right?

Neverbenormal: I could ask you the same thing.

Candoanything: 1, I don't do games, and 2, I needed a break, just fell asleep at my desk and had a bit of a flashback.

Neverbenormal: Today's misison?

Candoanything: Spellcheck much? And yes.

Neverbenormal: I know, I should watch my typing. Most of the time I do. It ahppens to everyone.

Candoanything: Not me. (giggle)

Neverbenormal: Faoums last words, Kim. Famous last words.

Candoanything: Whatever.

Neverbenormal: So you're going to be all right?

Candoanything: Sure, it's no big.

Neverbenormal: Right. Well, g2g. Back to the report, then in the morning, making sure to hook up my bf.

Candoanything: Ron, I know I usulayl say this to Wade, but you rock.

Neverbenormal: Back atcha, KP. (looks) Hmm, spellcheck much?

Candoanything: (embarrassment emoticon). (Owned).

Neverbenormal: Boo-yah! Godo night, KP.

Neverbenormal has signed off.

Kim was a second away from signing off herself when she got an IM. Being who she was, she got more than her share of unsolicited attention online. Wade was usually pretty good about keeping the sharks off of her, however.

Blueeyedplatinum: Kim?

_"'Blueeyedplatinum'?" _

Candoanything: Who is this?

Blueeyedplatinum: If you're Kim, you can figure out who I am from my name.

Candoanything: Hmm. Blue-eyed, platinum, platinum… blonde?

Blueeyedplatinum: Do you know any blue-eyed platinum blondes?

Candoanything: … Tara?

Blueeyedplatinum: In the flesh, so to speak.

Candoanything: Tara, why are you contacting me? It's kind of late.

Blueeyedplatinum: I know, but I was just checking my e-mail and I noticed you were online so here we are.

Candoanything: I see.

Blueeyedplatinum: Forgive my forwardness, but have you asked Josh to the dance yet?

Candoanything: I'll do that tomorrow.

Blueeyedplatinum: You probably thought the same thing last night, right? And the night before?

Candoanything: What?

Blueeyedplatinum: You've been choking big time every time you got near him, like in practice today.

Candoanything: I have not!

Blueeyedplatinum: If you say so. All I know is, if you don't hurry up and ask him, Bonnie will beat you to it.

Candoanything: Well, I can't ask him at this time of the ni- Bonnie? But Josh already spiked her!

Blueeyedplatinum: Since when has she let something like that stop her?

Candoanything: Wait, Bonnie's your BF. Why are you telling me this?

Blueeyedplatinum: I have my reasons.

Candoanything: Tara.

Blueeyedplatinum: And they'll stay mine. g2g.

Candoanything: Wait, Tara!

Blueeyedplatinum has signed off.

O

Frustrated, Kim let another minute go by until she finally signed off and went back to her report.

Eventually, she finished her report, and her head hit the pillow with no confidence that she would have a good night's sleep.

Whether that was Tara's intent or not, the redhead's mind had been set to dwell more on Josh and the dance than on her close call of that evening, and it was still there.

It might be a long night, for all she knew. Or at least that was what she anticipated.

O

Meanwhile, the platinum blonde was settling into bed herself. Her thoughts on this night were also far from calm.

In her mind, it came down to this: if Kim got with Josh, Bonnie might get back with Brick. But if Bonnie got with Josh, there was no way that Kim would get with Brick again, not after that Adrena Lynn sitch.

It made Tara a little sick because she knew it would mean betraying her best friend, but somehow, she would need to make certain that Kim and Josh got together.

Somehow.

O

And there's Chapter 6. I should mention that I typed almost half of this yesterday, and then lost it, then tried to reconstruct it. I hope I did a good job; I find that once you do it the first time, trying it the second time is simultaneously easier and harder. Those of you who've lost and tried to regain work know what I mean.

Meanwhile, we still have to get Kim with Josh. And then there's the dance. And then, maybe, after the dance? There might be one more chapter, there might be two; I'm just not sure.

Anyway, please do that thing with the three R's-- wait, someone's already using that line. Oh well, do what you like.

One more thing. I appreciate the support and compassionate you reviewers have shown concerning the death of my father. I don't want to sound like a drama que--, er, king; but it seems that my job might be about to disappear. Those of you who pray, I'd appreciate your continued prayers.

And until the next chapter is up - and after that as well - I'm Nftnat, online, on e-mail (AOL), and on AIM. Good night, y'all.


	7. It All Comes Together

A/N: Hello again, everyone. I didn't anticipate this story stretching out to another chapter after this - that's right, there will be one more chapter at least - and yet, here we am. I also didn't anticipate settling into a chapter every two weeks, although some of my other stories it's been more than two years since I updated. Well, we'll see.

The latest figures have the addition of eight reviews and a story alert, as well as a story alert for one of my other stories. Hey, this might have contributed to that. I'd like to thank each and every one of you individually, and I will too, as you well know.

To King of Darkness, thank you, Your Highness. I too like those particular interactions. Tara's not finished with Kim yet.

Mr. Average, thank you. I like the clever turn of phrase as much as the next person. We have fun with words in my family, and I try to be smart in that regard whenever I can. I think I've had an experience or two with YIM. I think I remember it could have gone better, although I've had some times worse than others with AIM too. (shrugs) As to the job, it looks like the business is going to close. That's the bad news; the good news is the guy who used to be the boss here has said he could use me so it looks like I'm going to continue in the same line of work. We'll see if I can keep making a living at it. Long story.

Daccu65, thank you. As to the job, see above. As to the story, I too like to focus on the minor characters. Sometimes I look at a show and imagine what kind of stories there could be under the surface. I'm going to try to get other cheerleaders involved; we'll see.

Thank you, kaiokken. There's nothing wrong with what Tara is doing; she hasn't really done anything yet! And Kim, have feelings for Ron? He's Ron! They're just best friends; they're not interested in dating! Can you tell I was saying that in my Kim voice? Seriously, again, they're not at that point in their relationship yet! She had no problem with him dating Zita, did she? As late as the third season which led up to So The Drama, they both said that them even appearing to date would be awk-weird. And ogod check on the spell chek Oops, there I go again.

Thank you, Comet Moon. Tara, manipulative? Perish the thought! If she was, blame it on Bonnie's influence. Speaking of Bonnie, no she wasn't aware; she wasn't even online. Bendy? I'm not sure what that means. Like Bender B. Rodriguez of Futurama?

Thank you, SWP. Thanks for your concern about my personal life too; we're getting through it, one day at a time, you know. As to Bonnie, I like to think she truly has her best friend's interests at heart. She sees Tara crushing on Ron, she sees Ron tight with Kim, she knows that Tara's heading for a heartache, and she can't let that happen. As to Kim's feelings for Ron, see above.

Eoraptor, thank you. As to the episode order, I'm going by the production order, in which Crush is number 13. True, it was the first episode shown, but showing episodes out of order is so common isn't not funny. This at least took place after Tick, Tick, Tick; which was the first time Kim & Ron met Drakken & Shego. According to the production order this takes place after Number One, which took place after Sink Or Swim. I'm basing this on that as you can see from the first chapter.

And my panda pal, you got in just under the wire. Actually, you got in just over the wire, but I had to include you. What, Tara, devious? Nah, certainly not. So she's not as dumb as the blonde stereotype or the cheerleader stereotype would make you think. So she's human and she knows who & what she wants; does that make her a bad person? I don't think so. I like to think of her as someone you want to be your friend, which would mean you don't want her for your enemy. I'm not saying her wrath would be anything like, say, Bonnie; it's just, you know. Thank you for your review, the one that almost got away.

And here's the next chapter.

Kim Possible and all Kim Possible characters and concepts are copyright Schooley-McCorkle and Walt Disney Television Animation, a unit of Disney Entertainment / Buena Vista Entertainment.

George 'Terrible' Testaverde is copyright the superlative John Moschitta and Peter Engel Entertainment and NBC, a unit of RCA. (I borrowed one of my favorite teachers from Bayside High of Saved By the Bell fame)

George Washington and Winston Churchill are copyright themselves.

I don't know who has the copyright on Global Positioning Satellites, if anyone.

**Chapter Seven: It All Comes Together **

The next day - the day of the Spirit Dance - more than one member of the cheer squad came to school with a lot on her mind. At least three cheerleaders - a blonde, a brunette, and a redhead, believe it or not - were a bit preoccupied; and while there might have been various degrees of overlap in the size and / or content of their respective collections of cranial baggage, the intersection was by no means one hundred percent.

Take a certain pretty little blue-eyed blonde named Tara Gardner. She was the only one of the three who already had a date to the dance - Ron Stoppable - but she was by no means secure in that status, at least in her own mind. Ron had a female best friend, Kim Possible - a redhead who was head cheerleader btw - who had her eyes on a certain pretty boy, Josh Mankey. Problem: Tara's own best friend, Bonnie Rockwaller - brunette co-captain of the squad and arch-rival of Kim - had eyes for the same boy. Now, if Kim got to Josh first, Bonnie might go back to Brick Flagg, her old boyfriend, who was pretty reliable, if not too bright. But if Bonnie got to Josh first, Kim would be left high and dry, and Ron - Tara's date but Kim's best friend, remember - might feel obligated to go with her as they had always gone together as friends. And where would that leave Tara?

With that in mind, she was in a bit of a sitch: risk Bonnie landing Josh and risk her own date with Ron, or insure her own date with Ron by helping Kim to land Josh even if it meant betraying her best friend.

Then there's Bonnie. In addition to the above, she was also the Queen Bee of the student social structure, or Food Chain as it is sometimes known; no mean accomplishment for a sophomore. She also had no support at home in the form of a blissfully ignorant mother and two older sisters who were geometrically worse in personality than her, if such a thing is possible. It was really a lot to deal with; no one appreciated just what kinds of pressure she was constantly under. Or at least that was what she told herself.

As to the dance, she could easily get back with Brick, who she'd just dumped - for the third time - but there was her pride to consider. Even without this sitch, she hardly ever smiled. With it, well…

And then there was Kim. It took a lot to get on her mind, as not much got to her. Fighting super-villains and saving the world on a regular? No big. Keeping above-average grades? No big. All her clubs and activities? No big. A longtime best friend of the opposite gender who tended toward the random, lived his life by the credo 'never be normal', and occasionally freaked out? Maybe a bit annoying, but only on a sporadic basis. No, Kim Possible had just two weaknesses - three if you count Club Banana: boys and Bonnie. And lately the latter had been exploiting the former to the redhead's detriment.

The topper had come the previous night, not from Bonnie but from Tara. The blonde had cybertronically warned her - for reasons of her own - that if she didn't secure the date with Josh, Bonnie would. Adding a sense of wonder as to Tara's motives to her stressing over the young artist, it could be understood if Kim's brain was a bit out to lunch, or brunch considering the time of day.

She had come to school that day determined to get to the bottom of things by grilling Tara, but the blonde was prepared. She was sticking with her BFF like glue, accurately figuring that Kim wouldn't want to talk about it with Bonnie around. This had the secondary effect of keeping Bonnie from asking Josh, to the point that she'd finally asked Tara if she even wanted her to ask Josh to the dance or not. While Tara most certainly did not, she figured it wouldn't be good to tell Bonnie that, so she apologized and put a little bit of distance between the two of them, but not much. You never knew if Kim Possible was watching or where or when she'd turn up; sixteen types of kung fu might not be the same as having ninja skills, but at Middleton High School it was close enough.

O

Third period, and the dance is hours away. Early in the hour, Kim and Ron had been paged over the PA system to report to the assistant principle's office. They both knew what that entailed, so they resigned themselves to spending their free period meeting with Barkin, After-Action Reports - and extra homework in Ron's case - in hand.

As that meeting was winding down, strict protocol was being maintained; Barkin had ingrained the necessity for such regimentation in his office, much like when Kim went 'mission mode'. With the end of the debriefing in sight, there was a perceptible air of being able to relax, and the old soldier finally felt the situation was appropriate to allow himself a minute or so of interacting with and caring for the students, in his own brusque way.

"Possible, is something the matter? You seem a bit preoccupied."

Ron knew from experience not to speak unless he was spoken to, so he just turned in his seat toward his best friend and raised an eyebrow expectantly, indicating that he shared Barkin's concern for her, even more so.

Kim's eyes momentarily flared, along with her nostrils.

Immediately thereafter, though, she regained control. Her sight flickered to the man across from her, then to the boy next to her, before taking a few seconds vacation behind tightly closed eyelids as she inhaled deeply. Opening her eyes, she spoke.

"N-n-no, Mr. Barkin. I'm just, I've just got a lot on my mind, that's all."

She was denying the truth; he could smell it. But the teacher-student dynamic was such that he couldn't really pursue it; he could only wait for the situation to resolve itself, as they had a way of doing when it came to Kim Possible. So he took his turn at raising an eyebrow at her, glanced briefly at Ron as if to communicate an unspoken message (Ron played a significant part in resolving the aforesaid situations relating to Kim, and Barkin knew that too), then with nothing more to say, brought the meeting to a close.

"Very well then. It's still free period, so the two of you have the rest of the hour to yourselves. You may go now."

"Thank you, Mr. Barkin." the two of them chorused as they stood.

As he was turning around to leave, Ron couldn't help but feel a warm feeling on the back of his neck. Turning back, he saw a now-standing Barkin boring a hole into him with his eyes; Ron was getting a lot of that lately. As soon as their eyes locked, Barkin started nodding, slowly. Ron picked up on the silent message, nodded himself - quickly - and then hurried to catch up with Kim.

The message? To stick with Kim and find out what was wrong with her, and to do what he could to resolve it. It was something he was going to do anyway.

O

Meanwhile, in a classroom taught by George 'Terrible' Testaverde, Tara surreptitiously glanced at her watch.

She knew that this was a free period for Team Possible. She also knew that on this, the day of the Spirit Dance as well as the rest of the week, those who were on the decoration committee were excused from class early to finish their jobs. That included a certain young artist named Josh Mankey.

With Kim and Josh on the loose, the blonde felt that she needed to be there and somehow make sure someone asked someone to the dance. Then they could go off to the gym or wherever, and Ron would be left there for her to spend an extra minute or two with.

O

By now Ron had caught up with Kim. As they ambled between the rows of lockers on either side, Ron briefly pondered on how to broach the subject with Kim of what had her tweaked.

He decided to do what he always did: open his big mouth and let out whatever subject found its way to the front of his mouth first, no matter how random.

"So, how do you want to spend the rest of the free period?"

Silence came from her.

"We could go to the library. Maybe get in early for lunch?"

More silence.

"Or maybe to the gym? No, wait, no practice the day of the dance, right?"

He got a response from her that time. Two letters, and both of them were the letter 'm'.

Exhausting himself in the easygoing vein - for the moment - Ron decided to go empathetic.

"You had any more mission flashbacks?"

"No."

Well, that was the most he'd gotten out of her yet!

Encouraged, his easygoing nature decided to resurface and combine with the empathy.

"Kim, Drakken's in jail, Christmas was saved! What's the big?"

He knew that putting in his theory that the Blue Meanie himself had discounted would get her to crack, and he was right. She rounded on him as her mouth - and certain other body parts (no, not those parts!) went into motion.

"Okay, first of all, he was NOT trying to steal Christmas!", she spouted, or is it shouted? Then, having let off some steam, she seemed to give up on holding out on her friend. "…and I've got to tell you, Drakken, was easy compared to this." she finished, managing to retain a bit of attitude.

Placing a hand on her shoulder, Ron went into encouragement mode, one of his favorites when it came to her. "Reality check, Kim. If you can defeat an international super-freak, you can handle Josh Mankey."

As he finished, he struck a muscle-building pose, but not even he knew why. It couldn't have been about Josh; he was a pretty boy, not a muscle-bound jock.

Just then, the Kimmunicator rang.

O

A faint but unmistakable sound was overheard from down the hall. It was the door closing of the classroom next door, the room where Tara knew that Josh had class for that period.

She knew what that meant: Josh had just left the room, heading for the gym. With Kim and Ron probably already having ended their meeting with Barkin, there was a good chance that they would run into each other, and maybe someone would ask someone to the dance by the end of the hour. But how to tilt the odds in her favor?

She didn't even have a faint outline of a plan, but raising her hand, she put the plan she didn't have into action.

"Yes, Miss Gardner?"

Tara held up her hand with the watch and pointed to it with her other hand. Then she pointed toward the wall where the class calendar for the month was posted.

The balding teacher's eyes shifted above his closely cropped mustache, darting back and forth between the cheerleader and the calendar. In seconds he'd put the message together.

The watch. Time. The Calendar. Month. Time. Month. Time of the month.

Just before the beginning of the school year, the teachers had gone through orientation with the dean of female students. The code had been devised as a silent way of letting a teacher know that a girl had to get to the restroom, sooner rather than later.

Nodding, the teacher beckoned the student to come up to the desk as he pulled a bathroom pass out of his lap drawer.

Without a word, he handed it to her, and off she went.

After the door had closed, it occurred to the teacher that it had been that particular aspiring coed's 'time of the month' one time last week too. And according to the rules of teacher-student interaction, he couldn't ask her about it either. He would just have to content himself with notifying the dean of female students and leaving it to her.

O

Beep! Beep! BEE-Beep!

"Kim! He just left third period, and he's headed your way!"

"What?!"

"Subject: Mankey. I've triangulated his position on the GPS satellite."

O

The platinum blonde didn't walk the halls so much as she skulked them. It wouldn't do for either her date or her date's best friend or her date's best friend's potential date to see her before she saw any of them. Plus, it was also a free period for Bonnie so she had to look out for her best friend as well. Inwardly, Tara came close to despairing, knowing that the sitch called for at least two more eyes than she had. With no plan of action, she decided she might as well head for the gym - where she knew Josh would be at least - and hope for the best.

O

Speaking of the frosty-haired artist, he was almost to the gym when he remembered he still had his books, which he should probably put in his locker before he got to work. Some artists, like some geniuses, were prone to being a little absent-minded. Chuckling to himself - and not noticing a blonde shadow he seemed to have picked up somewhere - he headed for his locker, a hall or two past the gym.

O

"He's passing the gym."

Kim did a triple gasp, searching the hall in the general direction of where Josh would have to be coming from, then, panicking, opened the nearest door - fortunately, it was to a janitor's closet, not a classroom - and ducked inside. Ron hung back and looked around for a second, like he was standing guard or something, before a hand of his best friend reached out and pulled him inside with her. The door closed behind them, semi-gently, not hard enough to set the lock.

O

Tara flinched; she had just rounded a corner when she caught Mankey in the act of doing the same thing, just up ahead. She found herself entertaining uncharitable thoughts for the person who came up with the saying 'the thrill of the hunt'. Well, Washington and Churchill had found something musical in the sound of bullets firing in battle, early in their military careers. The platinum blonde decided that Washington and Churchill and that guy could have those thrills; she just wanted to get through the rest of the period without being discovered.

Taking a deep though silent breath, she peeked around the corner, and then continued tailing the artist.

O

Meanwhile, back in the closet…

Ron Stoppable peeked through the shutter blinds that formed the upper part of the inside of the door of the local repository for mops and brooms and buckets and things. The strangeness of the 'window' being lined with a blind on the inside and a grill on the outside idly passed through his mind before being chased by a more pressing matter: that of his best friend freaking out. He didn't like it when she was like that, and he tried to talk some sense into her. Still peeking through the blind…

"Okay, I think you've crossed a line here." He looked back at her, accusingly.

It was very seldom that she felt like this, but for one of the few times that she could remember, Kim Possible was at her end. "I, can't do it." Her shoulders slumped in defeat.

Wade on the Kimmunicator didn't exactly help things with his play-by-play.

"Target is on the move, closing in."

O

Josh rounded another corner, and there was his locker, just a few feet away from that janitor's closet. Some yards behind him, Tara was about to lose it, trying to simultaneously keep up with him and not be noticed. Knowing from previous recons with Bonnie that the artist kept his locker around this last corner, she leaned against the bank of lockers on the nearest wall and took another breath.

O

"...4, 3, 2, he's on top of you!"

_Wade, you are so not helping! _went through Ron's mind; even Rufus was being frightened, and the naked mole rat was never frightened! Well, except for maybe Ron's cousin Shawn's iguana. That little bully; he was just five- er, six, the folks kept saying; but he was an EVIL six!

_Head in the game, Stoppable. Kim needs you. _That much was obvious, as he saw her do a freak-out to rival some of his not-so-finest moments. Again she was gasping, again her eyes were darting about wildly in one direction and another, with much of the rest of her body following suit.

Looking about, Ron found providence smiling on him as he saw the bullhorn, right where he'd left it the previous day.

One hand went to the trigger and fingered it idly.

O

Josh approached his locker, opened it, and proceeded to stow his books inside. Just around the corner, Tara leaned her head on the lockers she was up against as she tried to plot her next move.

O

She replaced the Kimmunicator in her cargo pocket. For once, she got nuttin'.

"Maybe I just give up." she eked out as she walked past her best friend, resigning herself to letting golden hotness get away from her.

Ron couldn't believe it; yet again, she was doing the impossible - well, impossible for her. Kim Possible, defeated? By some pretty boy? What would this do to her confidence? Her reputation? What if Drakken and the others got word of this? And what would happen to him once Barkin found out that he'd failed the silent command from the office? _Well, forget that! Not on my watch! _

As he again placed one hand on her shoulder with a smile in comfort and support, the other hand raised the bullhorn. "I repeat," he said as he placed the bullhorn to his lips, "YOU CAN HANDLE THIS!"

O

"YOU CAN HANDLE THIS!" reverberated through the surrounding walls, eventually filtering through to the lockers against which Tara was resting her pretty little head.

"RON!" she whispered to herself. The message might not have been directed at her, but as far as she was concerned it might as well have been. That was her Ronnie-poo, taking care of business, making sure that Kim closed the deal.

She stopped short. Her Ronnie-poo. Where had that come from? Well, wherever it did, she found that she liked it. Not even one date between them yet, and already she had a pet name for him. She'd have to remember to try it out tonight, when they were alone.

Standing, she headed toward the corner, galvanized into action. Now if only she could figure out what action…

O

The redhead psyched herself up, closing her eyes tight and biting her bottom lip - not enough to draw blood. Then, deep breath, and she took the plunge, plunging outside that door, to where her destiny stood, at his locker.

He looked at her, and his smile broadened. "Hey."

She weakly raised a hand. "Hey."

O

As the blonde rounded the corner she saw the young artist standing there, his back to her. And facing him, in full view of her, was Kim. Panicking, Tara realized that if she could see Kim full-on, Kim could see her! She ducked back behind the corner. She needn't have bothered; Kim was focused on Josh and her insecurities, not necessarily in that order.

O

Her eyes went down, then up, then to the side, then,… "Um, oh, uh," Then she thought of something to talk about, the best she could do on such short notice. "I'm sorry about the banner," she gesticulated with one thumb and the other forefinger. "you know, the one I tore down." she finished, head down, hands clasped behind her back in the classic apologetic position.

His frostiness never ebbed; he was so cool. "Eh, it was kind of weak anyway."

And she was back up. "Oh, great!" then down. "I mean, too bad." then back up. "New one's better?"

"Much. Uh, don't tear it down." he responded, shaking his head.

"Definitely not." She responded, looking anywhere but at him.

O

Inside the closet, Ron was tempted to look for any stray nails lying about so he could chew on them. The tension his best friend had been going through seemed to have transferred to him with that pat on the shoulder, and it was doing a number on his head, his abdomen, and everywhere in between.

He wasn't the only one.

O

Peeking around the corner, Tara was practically having kittens.

_Come on, Kim, gut it up already! What are you waiting for? _

O

She was waiting for the latest flock of butterflies to land on whatever point of her guts they chose to. She was still nervous, but she was getting used to it; this was an adrenaline rush unlike in any of the parachute jumps she'd done. Still looking away, she continued. "I guess I'll see it at the dance, huh? Maybe, I'll see, YOU, there." she finished, briefly making eye contact with him before becoming fascinated at her shoes, and inadvertently wondering when or if she'd ever fill out on top like Bonnie or Tara or...

If Josh was having fun at her expense, he was doing a poor job of hiding it; his eyes were laughing so hard they should have been a mouth. "At the dance?"

She just kept looking away from him, still with her hands clasped behind her back. "Sure! Maybe you'll be there, maybe, with me?" She again looked back at him.

"Are you what, asking me to the dance?"

"I know, I know! I sound so random," - and she looked random too, she was physically all over the place. "but, yes, yes, I am."

"Cool!"

"Very." Finally relieved of her nervousness now that he'd said 'yes' - kind of - she pulled herself out of her apology stance and got comfortable, preparing herself to walk with him, which she did, heading back to the gym, taking the scenic route this time.

"So I'll come by around seven." The artist ventured, falling into step with her.

O

Tara couldn't tear herself away from the scene, even risking being seen, not that there was any real danger of that with Kim now concentrating solely on Josh. Her hands tightened into fists, she reversed-pumped while silently chanting, "Yes! Yes! YES!!" Josh was taken. Kim was taken! Her date with Ron was safe!!

Speaking of Ron, she noticed that now Kim & Josh were walking away, about to pass the closet where Ron must still be. It occurred to her that now Ron was alone in the closet, and might not his date - who just happened to be passing by - stop in and say hello?

She spun around the corner for the last time, prepared to do just that, when she noticed movement up ahead.

O

Ron was so proud of her. He was proud of himself too, for never giving up on her. He noticed Rufus was now on his shoulder, and joyously slapped him a high one - a finger, not the whole hand.

"YEAH!" the two of them chorused.

Then, as snatches of the conversation of the two passing by drifted through the doorway, Ron overheard Josh mentioning picking Kim up at seven, probably in that red convertible he'd heard about the artist getting for his birthday; apparently Mankey's 'rents liked to spoil him.

It occurred to Ron that he needed a ride as well, and why would he not tag along with Kim and her date? Well, why not he and his date; he'd need to check with Tara. With no further thought, the bullhorn swung back to his lips.

"I NEED A RIDE TOO!"

o

Tara saw the bullhorn rise to head level. She heard the voice of her crush. Then she saw something she didn't believe. She saw Kim's foot rising.

O

"I NEED A RIDE TOO!"

Kim heard it, but she couldn't believe it. Ron was actually trying to horn in on her date? Now that she'd finally hooked up with Josh, Ron was back to being his usual charming self? No way! She'd wasted enough time stressing over Josh; not one more minute!

Almost on instinct, her foot came up…

o

As the foot made contact with the door, and the door slammed shut, Tara stopped her forward progress, poleaxed.

She was in shock. Did Kim really just slam the door on Ron? Her best friend? And every student knew that if you slammed that door hard enough, it locked and couldn't be opened from the inside. Kim had locked her best friend up where he couldn't get out and would have to count on the kindness of a stranger if he saw the outside of that closet, for the whole weekend? What was that girl thinking?! She might think she's perfect, but she's not really all that.

Tara was shocked at what sounded like Bonnie's voice. She quickly looked around her and didn't see her BFF anywhere; apparently it was just in her head. But it was a good point, and it led to another one. Would Bonnie lock her in a closet over a date? No, she would not! Bonnie might have her faults - Tara would know that better than anyone else - but she was loyal to her friends, much less to her best friend. In that area, Bonnie clearly had it over Kim.

And she was still walking! She was walking away from her best friend! Tara had enough; she stalked over to that door to let Ron out, intending to have words with her captain later.

She could hear his apparently unfazed voice emanating from the door. "You could swing by around 7:15." Well, at least he'd put the bullhorn down.

As her hand went to the door, she could hear him still talking. "Actually, you know, my Mom's going to be hemming my pants, so maybe like 7:30..."

o

Ron continued, blithely unaware - for the moment - of the treachery of his best friend. No sooner had he said "7:30" than the door opened, and standing in the hall, her hand on the doorknob, was a certain smiling blue-eyed platinum blonde cheerleader with whom he just happened to have a date that very night.

"7:30 is doable."

"Tara?"

"I could definitely work with 7:30."

A slow smile spread over his face as he realized that his date was trying to finalize plans for their date. Well, she wasn't the only one who could definitely work with that!

It was then that he noticed she had her hand out to him. He took it and stepped out into the hall.

As they started to walk in step with each other, something occurred to Ron.

"RUFUS!"

In a sudden Ron Stoppable-style panic, he dashed back to the closet - with Tara hot on his heels. They divided the closet between them and started to tear through it in search of the naked mole rat.

It was Tara who had found the little guy. 'Here he is!"

Ron rounded and got within sound of his little buddy just in time to miss Rufus talking a blue streak. The only words Tara could understand were "Kim-Kim!", "Ow!", and maybe "Not cool!" She wasn't sure about that last one.

"Rufus! Buddy, are you all right?"

Rufus was about to repeat himself when he felt the soft touch of Tara's index finger stroking his back. And he heard her soft shushing voice.

"It's all right, Rufus. I'll have a talk with Kim about this. There's no need to get Ron mad at her, all right?"

Rufus had limited experience with the platinum blonde, but he knew that his human had a date with her and geniunely liked her, and that she was a really nice lady. Put that together with her gentle voice and gentle touch, and she carried the day. So he gave her a chance with a thumbs-up and squeaking out an "Okay." At least that's what she thought she heard him say.

As she handed him over, Tara found herself saying, "Maybe he should rest right now, Ronnie. He's just been through a bit of a shock."

As Ron gently laid his suddenly-sleepy pocket pal in his usual place, he nodded agreement.

"Yeah, that's a good idea, Tara. People don't appreciate just how much sleep the naked mole rat needs to get, you know."

Her eyebrows arched. "Really?"

"Yeah. He does a lot on the missions - I don't think even both of us can save the world without him - but he's really high-maintenance. It's tough being a single parent to a little guy like him."

Her smile took a compassionate bent. "Aw, poor baby."

That sweet nothing went over Ron's head because something else occurred to him.

"Wait, Tara, won't you get in trouble for being out of class?"

"Not with this." She said as she held her bathroom pass in front of him.

"Ah. Gotcha."

Her smile was serene. His smile was goofy, as was his wont.

"So I'll pick you up at 7:30?"

"Great… wait, what? You'll pick me up?"

"Yes. Do you have a problem with that?"

"Oh, no, no, of course not! Heh, certainly not."

She giggled.

He continued. "I don't have my license yet anyway."

"Me neither. I hope you don't mind, my brother will be driving."

"O-kay, I guess that means we'll be taking the back seat. Wait! What I meant was, um…"

She giggled again; she tended to do that when she was around him.

It apparently took his mind off of whatever he was trying to say, or not say. Then he remembered what else she'd said.

"Wait, you- your brother? Um, have I ever met him?"

She shrugged her shoulders. " I don't know. He's never mentioned you to me, but we don't talk much."

"Oh. Uh, why? Why not? You don't get along with your brother?"

"It's not that, it's just, he's in his own little world."

"You mean, like Mankey?"

"Not exactly. You'll see when you meet him."

O

Tara exulted in her sitch. Kim and Josh had hooked up, and she hadn't had to betray her friend; she hadn't had to do anything! She should have trusted in Team Possible. Even though the media hadn't paid attention to Ron, she had; and she knew that on the rare occasion that Kim couldn't get the job done, Ron could always be counted on to step up and have her back.

And now she was hours away from her first date with her Ronnie-poo, and there would be other dates; of that, she had no doubt.

As the two of them continued down the hall, arm-in-arm, to… um, well, she'd figure out where they were supposed to be going in a minute. Anyway, as they went, she basked in just being there, next to him.

There was one fly in the ointment, of course, and that fly flitted around the outer reaches of her mind. Before the night was out, she was going to have to have a talk with her cheer captain over her actions of the day.

o

A/N: And there we are, a happy non-ending. We'll have the dance, and what will happen then, and maybe afterward. Any guess on Tara's brother? Or what she'll say to Kim? You'll see soon; I try to get this up ASAP. Maybe the guys who write the whole story in advance have an idea there… Naahh!

Until then, and afterward, online, on e-mail (AOL), and on AIM I'm Nftnat. Good evening, y'all.


	8. Slap Happy Dancing

A/N: And the story continues. And people are still finding out about the story. You can add one each under Author Alerts, Favorite Authors, Favorite Stories, and four Story Alerts, not to mention eight more reviews - one for Chapter 6; for which I thank every one of you.

I keep thinking that the chapter I'm working on will be the last chapter, and at the end there keeps on being enough material for another 'last chapter'. I'm reasonably certain that the chapter after this will be the last one, but we'll see. You'd think I'd know not to try to predict the stuff that I'm writing by now; makes me glad I never pursued a career in meteorology.

Now, to those reviews. For points brought up in more than one review, the Kim Stoppable typo has been fixed. Tara will definitely confront Kim, but being the peace loving person she is, she'll try to keep it on the DL. And as to her brother James, I've never heard of anyone by that name in KP unless you're talking about Dr. James Timothy Possible. Now, that - as Monkey Fist has said - is whack. That would make Tara Kim's aunt. Mr. Dr. P is brother to Slim, and probably brother to June, but Tara? As for other matters:

panda0031698, thank you. There might be some fluff here, depending on your definition of fluff. I don't really think of Kim locking Ron in that closet as 'on purpose'; more like instinct / reflex. Oh, and I loved your RT story; the TaRoniverse seems to be strengthening, and I like to think I had a hand in making that happen.

Thank you, Samurai Crunchbird. I'll be the first to admit that it could have been better, and I'm afraid that continues here. Some parts, like the one in the ladies' room, practically wrote themselves. Other parts I really felt like I was stretching. I did what I could to keep all the characters in character. I'm afraid that the 'he said she said' stuff was given the short end here to get this out as soon as I did. And I keep a thesaurus handy when I work; I really should get into it more than I do. DYK there was over a dozen categories for 'head' in the index, and not one referred to the part of the body? Anyway, I hope to continue to improve in the future.

daccu65, thank you. I seem to have a thing for developing minor characters - like Brainy from hey Arnold! - but it wasn't really deliberate. I just see a character and think I could do something with that character and boom, I'm off to the races if I give myself the chance. I don't know why noone's ever done that take on the closet before. I guess we all see things that nobody else is doing, so we do it. That's what makes inspiration.

Thank you, Comet Moon. I didn't mean to have a quiz at the end, like Aero Tendo does - those quizzes and your answers are among my favorite parts of his stories btw. I do intend to continue this to the end, and then into future stories.

Sacred White Phoenix, thank you. I don't think Ron really knew what was going on with Kim, to say nothing of what Barkin knew. Ron does want to keep Kim happy, and Barkin knows what the two of them do for the world. He is tough, but fair. As to Bonnie and Brick, as we have seen from the episode she did end up doing exactly that, but in my version… well, we'll see.

Thank you, Joe Stoppinghem. A double thank you for your two reviews. Glad you're now caught up, again. It's true that Tara isn't being completely altruistic, but neither is Kim. Neither is anyone except for maybe Ron. And will Bonnie find out? Well, we'll see. Interesting is what I'm going for.

And Mr. Average, thank you, too. Yeah, I felt like I had to contribute something original to KPFF. While I don't think the whole "time of the month" thing was up to the standards of the many great KP authors it has been my privilege to read, I guess it was something. Maybe I can improve on that as I go along. Would Tara have really betrayed Bonnie? I guess we'll never know, and she's glad she didn't have to find out. Maybe she'll feel guilty anyway and will try to make up for—oops, cousin Larry keeps having to remind me not to give out any spoilers. Catfight? I hope not; I'm really a peace-loving guy. But I will try to keep up the good work.

To all of you, thanks again.

**Chapter 8: Slap-Happy Dancing **

Spirit Week was a Middleton High School tradition that dated back some decades, long before the current student population and maybe some of their parents were born; no one was certain really. The most credible theory of origin was that it was started back in the 1970's, when the country and the culture in general were a bit down on themselves and the powers that were (TPTW as opposed to TPTB, The Powers That Be) figured the next generation needed something to feel good about besides the 'happy news' trend that was making the rounds at the time. But again, the speculation wasn't a hundred percent even about that theory.

The capstone to Spirit Week was the Spirit Week Dance, which was on Friday, the end of the week. Somewhere along the way TPTW figured that another occasion to dress up wouldn't do much for the spirit of those who couldn't afford to spend the money for another formal affair, so it was decided that the dance would be Come As You Are. That meant that students would have to wear whatever they came to school in that day. The parents were on board with it, especially those of the female student population; one less dress or gown they had to shell out for. Not all of the students - particularly the rich and those higher up on the Food Chain - were in favor, but this time the numbers game carried the day (better than it ever had for that villain in Go City). And while it had never been an actual rule, it had become a tradition, a custom, to the extent that dressing up for this dance was just not done; it could seriously affect your place in the social order.

The best that some could do would be to attend school in uniform, like the cheer squad. They were usually divided on that; every year, some cheerleaders attended in uniform and some didn't. To give them more of a choice, it had also been a tradition that there was no practice on the day of the dance.

Again, some cheerleaders attended school on the day of the dance - and thus the dance itself - in uniform while some didn't. This year, the contingent that came in their civvies was led by squad captain Kim Possible, while those who chose to remain in uniform were led co-captain Bonnie Rockwaller. It wasn't intended as an illustration of a power divide on either part; that was just how the squad in general, and Kim and Bonnie in particular, chose to dress on that day. No one had bothered to check ahead and find out how anyone else was going to dress, which was strange for teenage girls but that was another Spirit Week tradition.

Now, normally, as Bonnie's best friend, Tara Gardner stayed pretty much in her shadow and copied whatever she did. Normally. But this time she had a date to which she was going to be driven by her brother. For reasons of her own, she didn't want to go in uniform. So she was not.

What she chose to wore that day was a light blue top and a blue denim skirt; she had a matching jacket already set out to throw on over it for the dance that evening, just in case of a chill. Blue was a color that worked for her, like purple for Bonnie and red or green for Kim and purple - or was that gray? - for Josh.

O

Speaking of Josh…

The time: 7:00. The place: the sizable residence of the five members of the Possible family. And parked on the curb outside is the little red convertible belonging to one Joshua Wendell Mankey. The owner has just knocked at the door of what Ron Stoppable has been known to refer to as Casa de Possible.

O

The time: seven-fifteen. The place: a modest - but not too modest - house of yellow clapboard, turquoise eaves and greenish-brown roof. The name on the mailbox - next to a white picket fence yet! - reads 'Gardner'.

Inside, upstairs, a young lady of blonde hair and blue eyes is holding a telephone to an ear as with the opposite hand she writes something down on a sheet of paper. Downstairs, another young person is leaning against the doorway. The attire of this other person indicates a male, although the length and body of hair - also blonde - almost approaches that of the young lady upstairs, and that's saying something.

The aforesaid attire consists of a green ball cap turned backwards (with a lock of hair sticking out the gap in front), red top and khakis.

The person at the door checks a watch on the wrist, then yells upstairs in a distinctly male voice, and a slacker tone.

"Yo, Tara! You ready yet, or what?"

By now she has approached the top of the stairs and is beginning to step down.

"I just needed to get directions to the Stoppables."

"Oh… Wait, didn't you make another call?"

"Yeah, I wanted to get the time and temperature so I called that number first."

"Oh. So how cold is it outside?"

Apparently it was going to be cool enough that she had decided it was a good idea to throw on that denim top she'd set aside earlier. As she reached the bottom of the stairs and was traversing the short distance to the door, she responded. "I knew before you started talking."

He was apparently unfazed, choosing an affectation not unlike that of current movie star Quinn.  
Whatever."

By now she had exited the house; it was a simple matter for him to turn off the front light and follow suit. (The adults of the house were out)

O

Meanwhile, at the Stoppable house…

A young man with hair the same color as those other two kids - though much shorter - is currently in one of his more-used moods: panic. He is pacing back and forth in front of a door, which wouldn't be at all unusual but for the fact that he is currently without his pants. That too is not very unusual; he is frequently seen without his pants, but not in his own house - well, except for the bedroom or bathroom, neither of which this was.

"Mom, I need my pants! Tara and her brother are going to be here any minute!"

The door opens and a hand thrusts the missing piece of clothing into his hands. A voice emanates.

"Hemming them didn't take long, Ron. You'd have had them sooner if you hadn't insisted on taking in the waist."

"I know, but if you see me and Kim--"

"Kim and me."

"If you see Kim and me on the news you'd know that my pants tend to fall down at the worst time. I don't want that to happen while I'm on a date!"

"Maybe if you tried wearing a belt, dear."

He didn't hear her; he was already in his pants - more securely this time - and had moved on down the hall to another door, on the other side of which was apparently another parent. Ron knocked on the door.

"Dad, are you sure she can find the house from your directions?"

"Ronald, you don't get to be an actuary without being able to clearly relay information. Don't worry, son; they have until seven-thirty before you should start sweating." A chuckle followed that statement from behind the door.

Before Ron could respond, another statement began.

"I guess that's your ride, Ronald. Hmm, a '55 Plymouth; haven't seen one of those in a while."

"She's here?!"

Before anyone else could say anything, the sound of a car horn being laid on was heard by all in the house. That didn't set well with the other parent.

"Of all the nerve! Doesn't she know it isn't polite to just drive up to your date's house and honk the horn for them to come out? She should get out of the car and knock at the door--"

Ron interrupted his mother, which was rare even for him, but then, so was his having a date.

"Mom, first, I'm pretty sure that's if I was picking her up, not the other way around; and second, her brother's driving."

"Well, that's no excuse; he should know better. Don't they teach drivers' etiquette in Driver's Ed?"

Ron briefly and involuntarily remembered rumors he'd heard about Russell Niedelmyer - who'd flunked Driver's Ed - and hoped that his mother's question was rhetorical and thus didn't merit an answer.

Out in the car, Tara was moderately mortified.

"Could you not? It's very rude to just drive up to someone's house and honk your horn!"

"What do you mean? The guys and I do this all the time."

"And you've had how many dates lately?"

"What's your point?"

Choosing to not answer, she rolled down the window. "Never mind; I need some air."

"Taking note of her actions in the rear view mirror, the driver noted out loud, "Maybe if you'd left the jacket at the house."

Meanwhile, in the house, attention was being paid to the passenger out front, now plainly visible to both senior Stoppables, who were currently in rooms that faced the street. Mrs. Stoppable was apparently impressed.

"That's your date? She's adorable! Oh, she looks like a little

doll, don't you think so, Dean?"  
There was a pause of several seconds as 'Dean' worked up

an answer. This was a difficult question for a man to answer, especially from his wife; but he was up to the challenge.

"Didn't one of us win a doll that looked like her at Middleton Days last year?"

"No, dear. I was thinking about one of those dolls from the Hamilton Mint we see on television?"

"Oh. Well, I wasn't going to say anything, but…"

This might have developed into a fascinating conversation for all Ron knew, but he wasn't there for any more of it. The next sound that was heard was that of the front door closing, at which time he was already halfway to the car.

O

Ron made a beeline for the rear passenger section of the big blue automobile in the driveway, where his date waited with her eyes set on him, as anxious as he was - and a little bit more - to get the party started, as it were.

Hi, Ronnie." she said as he opened the door.

"Hey, Tara." he answered as he stepped inside and started to sit down.

As he was finishing sitting down, a third voice made itself heard, establishing that the two of them weren't alone.

"Hey."

Ron looked toward the driver's seat, a greeting on his lips, before doing a double take. "Junior?"

Yep, it was Junior, of Detention Hall, or the Lifetime Losers Club as Kim referred to them, affectionately of course. That's as opposed to Sr. Senior Junior of course.

He who we now know as Junior - Tara's brother - took his turn at doing a double take. "Whoa!"

He then beckoned to his sister, and when she was close enough, he whispered to her. "Tara, this guy's been in detention!"

Tara briefly rolled her eyes before responding.

"So? You have too; you practically live there!"

"But you're not dating me. Ugh! That wouldn't be right!"

A second passed before his sister tried again. "Junior, trust me on this; he's all right."

He accepted. "If you say so." Then he stuck a hand back to shake with one of Ron's. "Hey."

Ron took it with his usual good nature, after a couple of seconds. "Oh, right, the 'Hey'. Um, 'Hey' right back atcha."

Junior turned back and started the car, and it was en route to the high school and the dance.

Along the way, Tara felt the need to make conversation. She really wasn't inclined to have the subject of conversation be her brother, but at the moment she was having a psychological brain freeze and couldn't think of anything else, and it wasn't for lack of trying.

Almost against her will, she found herself forming the words with her mouth. "So, you know Junior from detention?"

Ron wasn't expecting that, but he quickly recovered.

"Oh yeah, I've done the occasional stretch - I told you about Barkin having it in for me."

Tara nodded while Junior overheard. "Oh yeah, tell me about it!"

Ron was about to continue when something occurred to him.

"You know, Tara, I don't think I've ever heard you talk about your family."

Tara grimaced. "There's a reason for that. You were saying about detention?"

Ron didn't know why she was rushing through that subject, but he rolled with it.

"Okay, well, the last time I was there was that time Kim was in detention; I was just visiting."

Ron might have been talking just a little bit louder than he should have. At least it was loud enough for Junior to overhear. "Kim? Oh, yeah, she painted our nails all sparkly!"

Tara cringed as her brother continued his unwanted contribution. The two in back could barely make out his eyes shifting in the rear view mirror. "You know, she's a cheerleader."

Ron opened his mouth to respond when he felt a delicate hand on his arm. Looking down, he saw a mortified Tara sadly shaking her head. The rest of the ride proceeded pretty much without incident.

O

They were dropped off, with Junior saying something about returning to pick them up in, well, maybe two hours, maybe three - it was a bit of a gray area.

They maneuvered through the couples on and off the dance floor, Tara stopping occasionally to make a little small talk with someone from the squad of other acquaintances.

She saw Bonnie sitting at a table to the side, a drink sitting next to her, her back to them. Tara decided not to approach her yet, hoping for good results from that first call she'd made before setting out.

Ron ably handled all the chit-chat; his reputation was still somewhat that of a loser - though that was currently in flux - but he had some serious people skills. By and large, he never met a stranger. And in the couple of dances they managed to squeeze in between the meet and greet, Tara found to her pleasant surprise that Ron wasn't exaggerating about his mad skills in that area either.

However, Tara did notice Ron's eyes occasionally sweeping the room, like he was looking for someone. She knew who, and she was trying not to jell; those two did have quite the history and still chose to date other people, a fact in which she tried to take comfort. Then there was that other matter; well, time enough for that. Squelching an inner sigh, she mentally gave in to the inevitable and joined him in scanning the room, hoping to see them first. She did.

"There they are!" she almost shouted, just loud enough for him to hear her over the music.

He heard, but didn't quite understand; he wasn't paying quite as much attention to his date as he should have been.

"Where who are?"

Tara knew that it was impolite to point, so she settled for nodding her head in the appropriate direction.

"Kim and Josh, over there."

When Ron saw the two his date had indicated, his eyebrows went up slightly, and his countenance slightly brightened - not that it wasn't bright before. He looked back at Tara, his eyebrows elevating another fraction of an inch. She nodded, and they headed toward the other couple.

O

The blond couple approached the half-blond couple from Josh's line of sight, behind Kim. This was probably the smart way to approach them, as Kim wouldn't have noticed if they'd been right in front of her, so smitten was she. She was staring into the eyes of the frosty-haired artist, her arms on his shoulders, in full crush mode.

Josh's attention was arrested, and then his eyes moved toward and away from those of his date, repeatedly moving upward and to an angle and back. Eventually, she got the idea, although it might have had something to do with a dim consciousness of someone coming up behind her.

"Oh, uh, Ron! Tara!"

"Hey, KP, Josh."

"Hi."

"Hey."

What followed was silence, several seconds worth, just long enough to start to approach discomfort-ability. Then Kim looked back at Josh. A look passed between them indicating that the dance was over, although it would of course not be the last one of the night. Kim then looked back at the blonds.

Temporarily forgoing her power of speech, her head jerked, indicating that the four of them should find a table. Tara nodded agreement, and off the four of them went.

Fortunately the dance was still early enough that there was still a table here and there that hadn't been claimed. The status of one of those tables changed when they reached it, and the four of them grabbed chairs and sat.

All this time, no one had said anything; and still no one said anything. The silence between them - for no reason any of them could think of - had definitely passed uncomfortable long ago and was now solidly into excruciating. Fortunately Ron Stoppable was at the table, and this was an opportunity for one of his strengths: defuse a potentially awk-weird sitch by opening his mouth.

"So, Josh, are you doing right by Kim?" As he finished that question he looked at Josh a bit askance, like he was trying to give his fellow blond an evil eye or something.

"Ron…" Kim moaned, while Tara looked a bit amused.

Josh was a bit slow to respond. "Uh, yeah, I'm--"

Kim interrupted. "Ron, he's doing just fine, no big!" She hesitated before deciding to turn it back on him, sort of. "And how's Ron treating you, Tara?" She did feel kind of responsible; after all, she'd set them up with each other.

Any concern turned out to be unnecessary, though, as Tara apparently had no complaints; she was beaming.

"Oh, it's been unreal, Kim!" She then lowered her voice. "It's not just hype, you know; he really IS a bon-diggety dancer!"

"Hey, I am what I is." Ron preened. Then, undeterred, he steered the conversation back to Josh.

"So you passed muster with the Drs. P?"

"Well, I'm… that's her parents, right? I think I saw her mother, briefly…"

"Ron, remember Dad's working late at the Space Center tonight." Kim was quick to put in.

"Oh, right! Well that means that Josh hasn't…"

"Hasn't what?" Josh asked.

Tara also was curious, looking forward to what Ron would say; while Kim inwardly cringed, dreading the exact same thing.

Ron briefly thought about scaring the new beau off with talk of the treatment he was liable to endure from Mr. Dr. P, then thought again. He shook his head.

"Sorry, J-Man. Not going to spoil the surprise."

Josh looked miffed for a second or two, then shrugged. "O-kay, I respect that."

Tara was still curious, but denied in that area, she shifted to another. "What is Kim's dad working on, or can you say? Or do you know?"

As thoughts of what rocket scientists might be working on - and what they might not be able to tell about - filtered through her mind, Tara's expression shifted from inquisitive, to apprehensive, to coy.

Again, Kim groaned; she knew what was coming. It seemed it was turning out to be her night to be embarrassed at family matters, and the Tweebs weren't even around!

While she was groaning, Ron was explaining, his mood brightening even more. "No, nothing like that, nothing secret. It's the annual open house for the Rocket Boosters down at the Space Center."

"Rocket Boosters? Isn't that for, like, little kids?" Josh simultaneously opined and questioned.

"THANK YOU!" Kim reacted toward Josh, then re-directed her reaction to the table in general. "I've been trying to tell him I'm too old for that since I turned thirteen!"

"Yeah, well, Mr. Dr. P kind of has letting go issues where Kim's concerned." Ron explained. He then tried to imitate the rocket scientist. "She'll always be my little Kimmie--"

"RON!" Kim gritted out between her teeth.

He wisely shut up.

She continued, one arm with elbow on the table and hand to her forehead. "I swear, last year one of the other Boosters was someone I babysat; there'll probably be more of them this time!"

Tara brightened. "Hey, maybe that partially explains it!"

Three pairs of eyes locked on the bubbly blonde, loaded with silent questions.

"Well, are there any other adults or teenagers at this Open House?"

"No." Kim responded. "There are other scientists working there, of course, but no, he's the only one who actually has much contact with the kids."

"Well, it can't be easy for one adult to ride herd on… how many kids?"

"I dunno, five, eight, something like that. And Tara, I think I know what you're getting at, but remember he has plenty of experience riding herd on the Tweebs."

"Tweebs?"

"It's a portmanteau word, like 'smog' for 'smoke' and 'fog'."

"Oh."

"I did that with 'twin' and 'dweeb'. Hence, 'tweeb'."

"I see. Well, um, there's just two of them--"

"I know where you're going with this, Tara. There's just two of them so it can't be very good practice for a whole group, right? Well, if you'd ever met the Tweebs, you'd change your mind quick."

"Maybe, but still, he's conducting a tour, and maybe he wants you there to help ride herd on the kids. You ARE the best baby-sitter there is."

Ron chose this moment to speak up. "I have to admit, she has a good point there, KP." Then he turned from one girl to the other. "On the other hand, Tara, you haven't seen Mr. Dr. P around KP on these things; trust me, in his mind, she's still eight."

The sunny blonde was undaunted. "Well, that probably won't last for too much longer."

Team Possible traded a look, sighed, and shook their heads with closed eyes. Ron intoned, "Pretty words, Tara; pretty words."

Josh chose this moment to re-enter the conversation, addressing the other guy at the table. "So you still go to the open house too?"

Ron's mood went up a couple of notches. "Oh, I wouldn't miss it! I can't let KP go through it alone--"

Tara cracked a small - if diffident - smile at that.

"--plus, it'll be next Monday, so it's an excuse to get out of school for a day. And they have these neat rocket-shaped cookies!"

Tara's smile doubled as Ron pantomimed the rocket-shaped cookies and what he planned to do to them; she couldn't help but notice that he was practically bouncing in his seat by now.

O

Kim had apparently had enough embarrassment for a while, so she stood. "I think I'd better hit the little girls room."

"That sounds like a good idea; me too." Tara put in as the rest of the table stood.

Josh cocked an eyebrow, but he knew better than to comment on the tendency of the female of the species to go to the restroom together. He contented himself with, "All right; we'll be here when you get back."

Ron nodded though he started to shuffle off in another direction. "Yeah, but I'm going to go get some punch. You want any?" He directed that question to the other three.

As Josh shook his smiling head, Kim - already walking with Tara towards the facilities - called back to Ron. "Not too much, Ron. You act like you could already go into orbit for a little bit."

As their consciousness of the guys faded behind them, Tara spoke to Kim. "So you noticed too."

Kim nodded with a grimace. "How could I not? He's always like this just before and leading into that blasted Open House."

"You really don't like it."

Kim softened a bit. "I guess it wouldn't be so bad if he didn't keep treating me like a child. That space center is kind of cool."

"I can imagine." Tara said.

"By the way," Kim continued, "I noticed Bonnie sitting at a table all alone out there; I'm a little surprised that you didn't try to talk with her."

Tara allowed a small laugh to escape from her mouth. "No, not when she's like this."

"Like what?"

"Oh, you saw how she was sitting. When she's like this, she wants to be alone."

"Then why did she come?"

Tara dissembled about her best friend. "It's, complicated. Best friend stuff, you know."

Kim, having secrets that only Ron knew, understood. "Ah, say no more."

"I'll catch up with her tonight after the dance." Tara continued. Then she mused, " I was thinking about getting Ron to have a dance with her before we get out of here."

That brought Kim up short. "Ron, dance with Bonnie?"

"Well, I haven't seen her with a date. Her plans kind of fell through. I was hoping that something would work out, but…" she trailed off in frustration.

Kim nodded understanding at the blonde's concern for her friend. "I see. Maybe I'll ask Josh to give her a dance too."

Tara brightened. "She'd like that." Then, dropping her voice - even though by now they were in the ladies' room - she changed the subject. "You mind if I come with Ron to that open house?"

To say Kim was surprised would be putting it mildly. She whirled to face the blonde and stared for one and a half seconds before her eyebrows moved North without leaving a forwarding address.

"I know it would mean some trouble getting myself excused from school for Monday, but--"

Kim didn't let Tara finish that thought, blurting out, "For reals?"

Tara nodded. "Yeah, it would give you some more help dealing with the little kids."

Kim just kept looking at her.

A slight twinge of discomfort showed up on Tara's face as she continued. "I really like children; if I didn't have all that stuff to do with Bonnie and the others, I might have gone into baby-sitting myself by now." A shy smile found its way into the area.

"Really?"

Tara nodded meekly, then let her mouth go as the smile started to light up her face and her mind took a detour toward her date. "Yeah, plus if I was there, I could spend more time with Ronnie-poo."

Kim had just gotten her eyebrows under control, but that last bit caused her to lose it again, her jaws joining them in an apparent display of being repelled from the center of her face. "Ronnie-poo?!"

Tara was caught and she knew it; her face showed it. "Uh-oh! Y-you didn't hear that! I- I wanted for him to be the first to hear, that is, I, I, it's supposed, it was supposed to have been for hi- hi, him, it was just, j- just for him…"

Kim laid a hand on the blonde's arm, calming her. "So not the drama, Tara. It's really sweet that you're already thinking about Ron like this."

"Re- really?"

"Sure."

That was the last word that passed between the two for a few minutes as they did their business. They met again at the sinks and mirror.

As they washed their hands, Kim picked up the conversation where it had been left.

"You know Ron's my best friend, and I was hoping that someone would be interested in him like this. He deserves the best, and that's what I want for him."

That bit about wanting the best for Ron combined with what Tara took to be a bit of a patronizing attitude from her captain and triggered something inside her mind. Kim didn't know it, but what she'd honestly thought of as kindness on her part had just sealed her fate.

The platinum blonde hadn't forgotten what she'd seen Kim do to her 'best friend' earlier that day, and she had come that night determined to address the matter. Thus far, however, her shy nature had been dominant over her sense of outrage. Now, though, she was determined to have it out with her captain. It was just a matter of getting up the nerve.

As she tried to steel herself, grabbing onto the sink, eyes tightly shut, teeth gritted, Kim, checking her makeup from the next sink over, couldn't help but notice. "Tara?"

Blue eyes opened. "What?"

"Are you all right? You looked kind of stressed."

"No, I… There's just something that I have to do tonight, and I was trying to psyche myself up to do it."

"Oh, trying to get up the nerve, huh?"

She nodded nervously. "Yeah."

Kim smiled in understanding as she reached over and squeezed Tara's hand. "You'll do fine, whatever it is. And if you need any help--"

"No!" the blonde interrupted, swallowing hard. "Not with this; this is something I have to do by myself."

"Oh. Well, good luck. I'll be pulling for you." she said as she returned her attention to her makeup.

_I sincerely doubt it_. Rang loudly and clearly through Tara's mind as she turned away from the sinks and toward the door. Taking one lead-footed step after another, she silently prayed, _Oh, please, give me the strength to do what I have to do_.

By the time Kim approached the door, Tara was already holding it open, facing away from her; clearly, she was waiting for the redhead. "Kim?"

"Yes, Tara?" Kim responded as she stepped within arm's reach.

_SIXTEEN KINDS OF KUNG FU!, SIXTEEN KINDS OF KUNG FU!, SIXTEEN KINDS OF KUNG FU!_, was screaming throughout Tara's mind over and over again as she raised her right hand out of sight of her captain. Quickly, before she lost her nerve, she pivoted to her left…

SMACK!!

…and struck Kim squarely on the side of the face.

It was one of those moments where time stood still. As Kim took her time getting over the shock of what had just happened, neither she nor the platinum blonde noticed that Bonnie - en route to use the facilities herself - had just been the sole witness to what had happened. She quickly ducked out of sight and tried to hear what was going on between her best friend and her nemesis.

As Kim slowly started to come out of the shock, as her mind was trying to come to terms with the fact that she, Kim Possible, world-saving teenage heroine, bane of evildoers everywhere, had just been dope slapped by one of her own cheer squad - and it wasn't even Bonnie! - the first words out of her mouth were, "What was THAT for?!" Understandably, she was a bit loud as her now-glowering face swung back toward Tara, a hand to the offended cheek.

The blonde swallowed again, and steeled herself. She had already crossed the line; there was no backing out now.

"That was to get your attention. You did something to someone today, could've hurt them really bad!"

Kim's mind raced from what Tara had said through all the possible implications thereof, "Who- what- which-?" before settling on what she thought was the right answer. "Wait, is it Bonnie? Is THAT what this is about? I mean, I know she's your best friend, and I know that she's interested in Josh too--"

"It has nothing to do with Bonnie!!" Tara responded; now she was being a bit loud, and unaware that the subject of the second was trying to overhear what she and Kim were talking about.

Getting herself under control, she continued. "Look, cards on the table, Kim. I'm under no illusion; teenage romances are not exactly known for their long shelf lives. Any couple could be broken up in months, weeks, even days. But right now I believe that Bonnie belongs with Brick, just like you belong with Josh, and I belong with Ron."

"Then what's the deal? Just what is the stinking sitch here?!" Kim hotly demanded.

Tara turned back to the open doorway; her foot was still propping the door open. "We really don't have time to go into it here and now; the guys are waiting for us. But you needed to know that there's a matter we need to talk about, and we will talk about it later tonight."

Kim saw that Tara was turning to leave. She couldn't believe that the blonde would just strike her, lecture her a bit, and then leave with such a meager explanation! A hand went out to grab Tara by the arm. "Tara…" she growled.

The blonde kept facing the door. "Look, Kim, I really don't want to make a scene here. Do you?"

Kim kept growling, but inside her mind she considered what Tara was saying. All that she wanted at that moment was to force the truth out of the blonde, by any means necessary.

And yet…

Headlines flashed through her mind. One of the tamer ones read, TEEN HERO SNAPS, ASSAULTS MEMBER OF HER OWN CHEER SQUAD

It didn't take any imagination at all to comprehend the fallout from that. And if her enemies were to get hold of it…

Sizing up the two of them demographically, Kim knew that Tara had her over a barrel. Central casting couldn't have done a better job of depicting the two.

Tara, sweet, innocent, bubbly effusive, bursting with pleasant personality, a pretty little blue-eyed blonde, the image of a Mary Sue. And she's even developed up there!, Kim thought in frustration.

Then there was herself, a red-haired green-eyed firecracker with a hair trigger temper, brash, tough, confident to the point of being cocky, subject to bouts of anger and braggadocio, holder of sixteen black belts.

Kim sagged as her hand fell back by her side. She knew that if it came down to it, Tara would win the PR battle without even trying. The fact that she, Kim Possible, had saved the world numerous times would only go so far. It wasn't fair, but that's how it was.

Her head had also sunk, but now it lifted, fire blazing in those green eyes.

"All right, Tara; you win. But we WILL have this out later!" she ground out in a chilly voice.

The blonde shakily nodded. "Probably at Bueno Nacho."

"Bueno Nacho?"

"Sure; that IS Ron's favorite hangout. He'll want to go there afterward and we all can talk this out. I wouldn't be surprised if he's lobbying Josh to go there afterward right this minute! If you and Josh want to go with us, we can settle things there."

That actually moved Kim out of her Kimness and into a thoughtful frame of mind.

Tara noticed her eyebrows knitting. "What?"

"From time to time, Ron has tended to exaggerate at singing the praises of Bueno Nacho. I'm pretty sure that world peace was on one of his lists, like if the world could get together over chimeritos and nacos, they'd find that they have much in common and a lot of problems would be solved."

Tara allowed herself a smile as the conversation was making a pit stop at one of her favorite subjects. "Sounds like Ron is smarter than many people give him credit for."

Kim actually smiled at that. "Yeah, I guess he is. He's full of surprises."

Tara allowed her smile to increase by a few microns. "I'm hoping to find that out for myself."

Kim's gaze returned to - and studied - the now-nervous platinum blonde. She didn't say anything for a minute, but eventually…

"All right, Tara. We'll go to Bueno Nacho with you and Ron, but before we leave there, you and I are going to straighten this whole thing out, one way or another."

Kim didn't mean to put any menace in her voice, but Tara picked up on it anyway. She shivered a little bit before nodding. "That's all I ask."

Then she again held the door open for her captain, and waited for her to pass before she did the same.

A funny thing happened on the way to the dance floor, though. As Tara exited the ladies room, a slender arm and hand reached out from around a corner and grabbed her.

She found herself suddenly looking into the face of her best friend. She saw a myriad of emotions there: shock, wonder, amazement, admiration, pride, and maybe just a slight undercurrent of suspicion.

"Bonnie!"

"Wow! What was that all about?"

Tara colored slightly as she realized the implications of this sitch. "What, you heard that? H- how long--?"

"Long enough to see you give Miss Perfect what for! I didn't know you had it in you, Tara!" Yep, the admiration was definitely there.

Tara colored. "Oh, you saw that?" Then her breath and her heart car-pooled to her throat. "Did anyone else?!"

Bonnie shook her head in a gesture of assurance to her BFF.

"No, I was the only one who actually saw 'it'. As to the talking, someone might have seen it but they wouldn't have thought anything of it."

"Oh." The blonde's body allowed its circulatory and respiratory systems to function normally again

"Good."

The brunette continued to shake her head, this time channeling her admiration. "I don't know what she did to get you all tweaked like that, but I hope I never do anything like it."

Now Tara smiled, trying to comfort her friend. "You won't, I just know it."

"So what DID she do?" Bonnie grinned in a predatory way in anticipation of the coming dirt on her rival.

Tara was conciliatory. "Can I tell you later tonight? I'm on a date."

The co-captain's face fell, just a little bit. "Okay. You'll call me after you get home, then?"

A kind smile was there. "Sure. We'll just talk the night away. You know?"

Bonnie's smile was more of the wistful type. "Yeah. I'd like that."

So saying, she stepped aside to allow her friend to return to the table where Ron and the others were waiting.

As she walked away - with Bonnie watching her go - Tara stopped suddenly; her friend knew the signs of her having just remembered something. "Oh. Bonnie!"

Bonnie fast-walked to her friend. "Yes, Tara?"

"Would you mind saving a dance each for Ron and Josh later on?" she asked as she turned far enough around to fix one eye on her friend.

The brunette took a step back. "A dance with, Ron? And, and Josh?" Her expression went from uncertainty, to more uncertainty, to a modicum of hope.

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure Kim's going to insist, a package deal, kind of. Like she's going to let you have a dance with Josh, but only if you dance with Ron first, or something like that."

A rueful grin appeared. "I guess I could suffer through that. From what I've seen so far tonight, there just might be hope for Stoppable; I might even have to start being nice to him in the halls."

A small smirk graced the porcelain features. "You mean like, oh, not calling him 'loser' anymore for one?"

Suddenly, Bonnie looked like it was she who had eaten those ancient pork puffs. "I don't know if I'd go that far."

"Bonnie!"

Closing her eyes, she shook her head, and sighed. "You drive a hard bargain." She appeared to think about the matter, then, "I will take the matter under advisement."

Tara smiled, then turned away. "Good. Oh wait," she turned away then stopped again, "What about YOUR date?"

Now nervousness held sway with Bonnie. "Oh, he's around, probably giving someone else a dance or something, you know."

That didn't fool the blonde for a second, but she let it slide; she had a date to get back to. Turning back from her friend, she waved for the second time in as many minutes. "Okay, talk with you later."

"Count on it."

As she saw her friend disappear into the crowd, the co-captain repeated under her breath, "Count on it." as her brows lowered.

_So, Tara, you think that Brick should be with me, and Josh with Kim? Well, we'll see about that. _

O

As Tara rejoined Kim just before they rejoined the boys, the look from the redhead was hard to miss. She kind of blew it off.

"Just best friend stuff; nothing, really."

"Mm-hmm." That was all she had time to say before getting within eye- and earshot of Ron and Josh.

"Hey, KP. Tara."

"Hey, Ron. Josh."

"Hi."

"Hey."

A good dance song was playing, so the four wasted no more time. And the guys would not catch on to what was going on between the girls for at least the next couple of hours. Being experienced cheerleaders, Kim and Tara were very good at hiding their emotions and putting on a sunny face when they really had to. Oh, Kim had some control issues at times, but right now she wasn't allowing herself to even think about that.

O

"Ron, what would you say if I asked you to dance one with Bonnie?"

"Me, dance with Bonnie?"

"Well, she is my best friend. I'd consider it a favor."

"Eh, why not; we're all friends here, right?"

"Right. Just, don't mention this to her, you know, about me asking you. She has her pride, you know."

"Oh yeah, the whole pride thing. Don't worry, Tara; Mr. Smooth will sweep her off her feet."

"Oh, poor Bonnie."

"What's that?"

"Oh, nothing."

O

"So, Josh, any ideas on what to do with the night after the dance?"

"Mm, I, hadn't really thought of it. You, have any suggestions?"

"There's always Bueno Nacho."

"Bueno Nacho?"

"You haven't been? It's, it's pretty badical."

"It, it is."

"Yeah. Besides, if I know Ron he's probably already talked Tara into it."

"And, you want us to go with them."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess… I know how that must sound. You see, it probably wouldn't be a good idea for either them or us to go too far, you know, first date and all…"

"O, okay, I respect that."

O

"You, want to make it a double date, with Kim and Josh."

"Yeah, heh. I, is that all right?"

"Mm, sure, I mean, like I said, we're all friends here, right? Oh, wait, what about your brother?"

"Oh, I'll give Junior the rest of the night off. He'd rather be racing tonight anyway."

"Racing? In that thing?"

"Mm-hmm, classic stock, oh, don't get him started on cars, he's like that guy on that tool show in Detroit when he gets on that."

O

"So how's the night going for you so far, Kim?"

"Oh, slappin'-- I, I mean, spanking! Heh, you?"

"Best dance ever, KP! You know you were right?"

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I really gotta thank you for suggesting that we bring dates; it's a lot more fun."

"Mm-hmm."

"Not, not that it hasn't always been fun going to these dances with you, it's just--"

"It's all right, Ron. My idea, remember?"

"Yeah… So, Tara and I were talking about hitting the BN afterwards."

"Really? So were Josh and I."

"Oh, cool. It's a double date then?"

"Sure. Wait, what about your ride?"

"Oh, Tara'll give her brother the rest of the night off."

"Wait, Tara has a brother?"

"Yeah, and you'll never guess who?"

"Who?"

"I'm not tell-ing."

"Oh, Ron! You're so--"

"I am what I is."

O

"My next art project?"

"Yeah, both of them were admiring your handiwork on the banners and such - and so am I, by the way."

"Huh, thanks."

"Yeah, Ron was mentioning it a minute ago, and I think Kim said something about it in the restroom too."

"Well I'm, I'm always glad to share what I'm working on with people who appreciate it. It's in my locker; I'd have to go get it on my way out."

"YES!"

"What?"

"I mean, yes, great, uh-huh, sounds good."

O

Some dances later, Kim and Josh found Tara keeping an eye on Ron giving Bonnie that dance; it had been decided that the brunette would dance with Ron first so she couldn't flake on giving him a dance after Josh. To his credit, Ron wasn't making a spectacle of himself. To her credit, Bonnie was apparently not choking at actually dancing with Ron.

Kim noticed Josh's attention was momentarily distracted, so just as momentarily she allowed her mask to crack as she looked Tara in the face. Fake smiling almost to crack her face, she gritted through her teeth at the other cheerleader.

"So, Tara, you up for Bueno Nacho afterwards?"

Tara noticed Kim's demeanor but chose to keep her front up.

"Oh, I'm looking forward to it. Not as much as Ron is, of course, but then, who does?"

Kim noticed Josh now looking back at them and put back up the fake smile that could fool those who didn't know better. She also allowed herself a chuckle.

"Too true, Tara. Too true." If her head had been more in the game, she wouldn't have slipped into alliteration; that was normally Wade's thing, or those crazies from Go City, when it was anyone's. Nice place, Go City. She'd have to remember to visit there someday...

Just then, the dance ended. Ron and Bonnie came walking up to the other three. Bonnie broke from Ron's company a bit hurriedly and approached Josh, but not before trading looks with her BFF.

"So, Josh, next dance?"

"Uh, sure?"

Bonnie noticed Kim looking around, and in a tweaked bit of curiosity, ground out, "What?"

"I was just thinking that if you're going to dance with my date, I might as well return the favor; I was just looking for your date."

"He's around!" Bonnie and Tara replied in chorus, just a bit quickly, and just a bit loudly.

Ron noticed the stereo, and this time he wouldn't be denied.

"Jinx! Both of you owe me a soda!"

Bonnie scoffed, "I don't think so. Come on, Josh."

"Uh, be right back, Kim." he managed to call out as the brunette dragged him out onto the dance floor just in time for the next song to start playing.

Kim and Ron and Tara couldn't help but chuckle at Bonnie's 'tude and Josh's plight. They glanced at each other, and in two directions, there was a genuine sense of camaraderie. In the third direction, almost.

O

The dance was winding down. Actually, it was the last dance. Of course, Kim was dancing with Josh, Ron was dancing with Tara, and Bonnie…

"Hey, Bonnie."

Startled, Bonnie looked up from her drink at the large form and smiling face of…

"Brick?!"

"Hey."

"What are you doing here?!"

"I know, I got here late. It's funny, I don't usually have any trouble getting here even at night, but--"

By now the brunette was on her feet, charging her former boyfriend.

"So don't care. Come on, let's dance."

Before Brick could put his thoughts together, he was dancing.

Bonnie was in his arms, with the intent of making the two of them appear as majestic as the king and queen of the Homecoming Dance (which might be in their future, come to think of it, for him to rule at her side). It was an acceptable subterfuge for it to seem that Brick had gotten his directions messed up, and Bonnie also had the cheerleader's talent for covering up her true feelings.

One by one, the other four noticed Bonnie with Brick. Through a series of nods and head points, each alerted the other to the fact that Brick was apparently Bonnie's date, and that they were having the last dance together. A slow smile spread over Tara's face; she couldn't help it. At least that part of her plans for the night, that first phone call, had come through.

As the dance was ending, Kim had a pretty good view of the other couple. She noticed Tara whispering in Ron's ear, which was followed by the both of them bolting for the door. Her eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed in suspicion of the blonde's intentions with her BFF.

O

The hall echoed with footsteps; the heavy clomps of Ron's gunboats, with the lighter counterpoint tapping of Tara's heels.

"Tara, the door to the parking lot was right there; why are we going this way?"

"Because last time we were here you forgot Rufus!"

"Only for a minute! We went right back for him."

"Just the same, I want to make sure you didn't forget anything else."

"But Tara--"

"Here we are, Ronnie."

"But--"

"Don't worry. We'll just duck in here for a minute, quick look around, and be out to meet Kim and Josh in the parking lot before they can miss us."

"I guess."

Without another word, Tara opened the door to the janitor's closet and gestured to Ron to enter. Instead, he stepped behind her, grabbed the door, and made a similar gesture to her, 'ladies first' having been ingrained in him. Deferring, she stepped inside, trusting him not to slam the door closed and risk trapping the both of them for the weekend. As she started her cursory examination of the contents of the closet, Tara found her mind starting to wander.

_Of course, there are worse ways to spend the weekend than locked in a closet with Ronnie-poo… whoa, moving too fast here. Like Kim says, head in the game, girl-- Ah-ha! There it is! _

Tara had come to this closet for more than one reason.

There'd been the reason she'd given Ron, a chance to spend time alone with him, and…

As she reached out to grasp the object, she started to allow a little bit of amazement to come to the forefront of her consciousness at just how big a plan she had laid out on a moment's notice without really thinking about it, how many variables were involved, how much depended on everything going just right. If she'd ever seen those plate spinners on the old variety shows, she would definitely have found herself identifying with them right now.

Picking up what she'd found, she turned in time to hear him say, "Well, I'm not seeing anything that looks like it's mine"

She held the item out to him. "What about this?"

His eyes and hands went down to what she was grasping.

Fingering the not-recently-polished metal in gray and off-white, he gently took it from her grip. "Oh, this old bullhorn?"

Lifting it closer to eye level, he shook his head. "Nah, it lives here, a leftover from cheer squads past. I was just going to use it in case, you know, my plans to get a date kind of fell through. Kind of, broadcasting my availability, I guess." As he finished, it finally occurred to him how lame that concept sounded; though to be fair, he had the long term prospect of being date-less when he'd come up with it. He shook his head in disbelief.

That lasted until he found his head - specifically, his cheek - coming into contact with something soft, something that felt like it was latching onto and holding his cabeza. He opened his eyes and looked directly in front of his face, directly into the piercing blue eyes of his date.

Now that she had his attention, she spoke. "Well, that's not a problem you have now, is it?"

As she finished speaking, her other hand moved to his mouth, where the index finger touched the middle point thereof. He gave a single nod, accidentally leaning onto the finger before he moved back from it to speak. "Guess not."

"And you used it to give Kim a push in the right direction, too." she continued, lowering her hands.

"Well, you know, having her back. That's what best friends do. I mean, you'd do the same thing for Bonnie, not that self-confidence has ever been a problem with her, when it comes to guys, that is…"

Tara felt a bit of a flutter in her chest as her arms again went out to him. "Ronnie…"

Meanwhile, back in the hallway…

"Kim, I am, so stoked that all of you want to see what I'm working on next. I didn't even think that any of you were interested in my art!"

Trying to pay attention to her date was not as easy as it might usually be for Kim Possible, due to the actions and intentions of her blonde squad-mate. Tara was definitely up to something, maybe a lot of somethings, to the extent of pushing her own multitasking abilities to the limit. What with slapping her, putting the bee in Josh's ear about them being interested in his work, wanting to come with Ron to the Rocket Boosters, making their dates a double date, and she was still not quite certain that deal with Bonnie and Brick was a complete coincidence. Coming back to the slap… wait, better answer Josh.

"Oh, why wouldn't we be, Josh?"

"I dunno, I guess I, I just didn't pick up on anyone showing any interest."

"Oh, the interest was there, may-, may-, maybe you just missed it. Like that ambassador? So last month."

"Really? I, I could have sworn that it was more current. It, it was just the other day, it was this week!"

"Well, maybe the show wasn't that current; it could have been you got a news magazine show mixed up with the nightly news or something. Eh, it's no big."

"Yeah, I guess. Ah, here we are. Huh, would you look at that. The door's open there."

"Door? Oh, the closet." Kim noticed, but she didn't think anything of the same open closet door from which she'd emerged hour before. And she didn't thinking about closing it either. Apparently déjà vu was also taking the night off as far as she was concerned.

In the closet, Tara heard the locker open; she knew that in a minute Kim and Josh would be out of the building expecting to meet Ron and her in the parking lot.

"Hey, Ron," she whispered, "We were going to let Junior go, but we haven't asked Kim and Josh if we could ride with them yet, have we?"

Ron thought about it, then, "No we haven't. I guess we should go ask them now?"

Tara was still half-listening to events in the hall, and was trying to time things just right. "We might, unless we want to walk to BN." With that, she took the bullhorn out of his grasp and offered it back to him. "Here. As they pass the doorway here, just tell them that we need a ride too, just like you did earlier today."

The obvious response to that suggestion would be to remind Tara of how that incident had turned out, but the obvious doesn't always occur to Ron Stoppable. Mutely, he accepted the bullhorn back and nodded, bringing the device up to his mouth just in time for the other two to pass the doorway.

"HEY, WE NEED A RIDE TOO!"

Again, Kim was passing by that open doorway. Again, she heard the voice of her best friend wanting to tag along with them. Again she got tweaked. Again her foot automatically rose…

SLAM!!

…and again she kicked the door closed, again trapping her best friend, this time, with company.

If they had stayed at that particular door, they might have heard a smacking sound and a small "Thanks, Ronnie." a second after the slam. Five seconds later, the pounding and high-pitched yelling started.

"HELP! HEY, COME ON BACK! LET US OUT OF HERE!"

Almost to the door, two figures stopped.

"Tara?" Kim inquired. She flew back to the door and yanked it open. She saw Tara standing almost at the doorway. A few feet back she saw her best friend Ron, who seemed a bit out of it. He had a dopey look on his face, one that exceeded the one he had acquired as they were leaving Wannaweep, right after Tara had kissed him on the cheek.

"Tara, Ron? What's, what are you two doing in here?"

The blonde temporarily had her back turned to her captain as she was reaching behind her to grab Ron's hand. She grabbed it, and turned back to the front, moving her feet to exit the closet.

"Oh, just looking for something - which we found - and taking a little walk down Memory Lane." she said as she passed by Kim.

To say the redhead was stunned would be an understatement. It took her the better part of a minute to come out of it. When she did, though, she tried to make up for lost time. She ran after them and finally caught up to her best friend almost at the school entrance. She laid a hand on his back.

"Ron, wait! What WERE you doing in there?"

The dopey look on his face was only now beginning to clear up. Nevertheless, Kim was determined to have an answer. But she wasn't going to get it just yet.

"Kim!" Tara replied for her semi-conscious date, "Ron is a gentleman; you can't expect him to tell."

That floored Kim.

"Uh, but, but, you, you mean he, he, you…" she trailed off; the platinum blonde was clearly doing a number on her; she wasn't sure whether that was deliberate or not.

Josh had watched the drama unfold. He had gotten a few steps back to the door by the time Kim had flung it open. He had observed the three of them returning to the spot where he was. Ron and Tara had passed him, and now Kim was standing directly in front of him, somewhat out of sorts. It was a perfect position for him to put a hand on her shoulder, which he did.

"Kim? Are you okay?"

"Uh, uh, yeah, I, I'll be, um… what just happened here?" she stammered.

Uncertain as to what to say or do, Josh looked toward the others. Tara looked back at him, then pulled at Ron, who was already outside the entrance and was starting to come out of his fog in the cool night air.

"Ronnie!"

"Huh, wha-, Tara?"

"Ronnie, Kimmie needs some help to get out the door."

Ron blinked, and looked back toward his friend, who was still as poleaxed as he had been.

"Oh, right, KP. Got your back."

So saying, he took a deep breath - his arms out and bent at the elbows into fists - and marched back into the building to where she stood.

He tried the usual tricks to snap her out of it, starting with whistling, then… "Yoo-hoo! Kim! Kim Pos-si-ble!" Finally he looked toward Josh, on the other side of Kim. "This is almost as bad as the first time she saw you." he quipped.

At the entrance, Tara saw that the door was closed again. She re-opened it. "Maybe if we got her out into the night air." she called to the guys. "It seemed to have worked on you, Ronnie." With that, she started walking back down the hall toward them.

Josh traded looks with Ron. "That's worth a try; help me get her out of here, Ron."

"Right." Ron noticed that Josh had some sheets of paper under an arm, but his focus was on returning his friend to the land of the conscious.

"Here." Tara put in as she reached the group. "I'll hold on to your sketches, Josh."

"Thanks, Tara." Josh said as he handed the papers to her. Then, with both arms free, he pulled Kim along at one side and Ron at the other. Between them, they got her to the door.

As she went semi-gently into that dark night, Kim cast a look back to the janitor's closet. As the cold started to bring her out of it, she started to wonder whether she'd been there before.

It seemed that déjà vu wasn't taking the whole night off after all.

O

And so it goes. I'm pretty sure that the next chapter will be the last chapter of this story, but I've been wrong before. But seriously, this time I don't see too much more happening, just the debriefing at BN, some breeze-shooting between the kids; we'll see. I already have a sweet exchange with Junior in the pipe; it's just a matter of fleshing that out with the 'he-said-she-said's'. I'll get back to you. Oh, and about yesterday, I feel like anticipating with a bit of Monique-speak. BTW, HMD, MFA's. By the way, Happy Memorial Day, my fellow Americans.


	9. Tara Explains It All

And here we go again, everyone. Time to try once again to put this fic to bed, and once again finding myself coming up wanting. Well, I guess that things are going well story-wise; eight reviews, two favorite stories and an author alert have happened since the last chapter was posted, and one of those faves was from one of my heroes in TaRon fiction (you know who you are). I'd better get to the reviews first.

To my panda pal, thank you. Sometimes Ron can be motivated to think ahead, like when Kim is in trouble. Actually having a date might be placed in that category. As to the pants, as they used to say on Animaniacs, MWAH! Good night everybody! I'm glad about the reactions to the slap; it's just what I was going for. That was one of the first scenes to come to me when I started thinking of writing this story. As to Bonnie, there will be repercussions; maybe not in this chapter, but there will be.

Thank you, Sacred White Phoenix. I know that parts were awkward; I said as much. Hopefully this will be better now that I again have a micro-cassette recorder where I can record my ideas of how the people would talk, in the exact words. As to the slap and Bonnie, see above. And this time - and maybe for some time to come - Ron has not one but two cheerleaders looking out for him, an enviable position indeed. I might say that Tara might not have had a problem with them being in there longer, though. As to Bonnie, I had to do something with her to ameliorate her upcoming discussion with her best friend, so I thought, what would Tara do?, and wrote accordingly. As to how I left Kim at the end of the last chapter, it didn't take long for Ron to recover in the night air, did it? As to Tara's lecture, read on. Yes, onward indeed!

daccu65, thank you. I'll have Tara go over what all she did and how she did it, hence the chapter of this title, which see.

Thank you, kaiokken. Kim did indeed create a monster, or more like she let the genie out of the bottle when she brokered the blond pairing. I'm going for interesting here, like that talk with Junior I mentioned last time.

Comet Moon, thank you. Would you believe I'm working on a sequel, titled 'Cheerleader Locker-Room Confessions'? It's not as titillating as you might think, though. Hmm, maybe I shouldn't have said that. Tara did rock Kim, and she will do so here, but you'll have to read to find out, or ask someone who did.

Thank you, motorized sasquatch. Tara is very nice and innocent; she doesn't react well if you mess with something or someone important to her.

Mr. Average, thank you. I have read both chapters of "A Stand-Up Gal"; I should review it then, shouldn't I? I should review a lot of fics, for that matter. Bonnie and Tara will talk, but I'd better not say any more about that. And that might have been a weak joke, but I laughed at it; jokes others think are weak constitute the story of my life. My Mom puts the 's' in 'laughter'; try to get that joke. Um, but, including 'Bonnie got to dance with Ron' in 'everybody came out a winner', well, the Ron-Bon fans would definitely like that. Hmm, Ron-Bon… Nah!

Thank you, acosta; I'd been looking forward to what you say. Ron and Tara are an interesting couple that IMIO should have been explored in the series, at least before STD. Here's the next chapter.

Before I go on, I'd better explain something. There's a couple examples of topical humor. Since Kim and company graduated in 2007, in my timelines 2006-7 is their senior year, 2005-6 junior, and 2004-5 sophomore. Of course the fourth season covers senior year. Since junior year apparently started with ASIT, everything from that to STD would to me constitute that year, and sophomore runs from the beginning of the show up to ASIT. That means sophomore first season and second season to ASIT, junior ASIT through rest of second season and all of third season, senior fourth season. That's not how everyone calculates things, but that is how I calculate things. Therefore, this story, which takes place during Crush, takes place during sophomore year, 2004-2005. How quickly some jokes and references can become dated, you can see for yourself.

And if you're looking for a little more entertainment for your buck, try to spot all the references and to figure out where all they're from.

Since I didn't make the acknowledgments last chapter, I'd better do a better job of it this time. Kim Possible and all Kim Possible show characters and concepts are loyal subjects of the Invincible Empire of the Mouse.

The Plymouth is copyright the Chrysler corporation, formerly a unit of Daimler-Chrysler.

George 'Terrible' Testaverde is copyright Peter Engel Productions and NBC, a unit of General Electric.

Freedom fries is copyrighted to Neal Rowland of Cubbie's in Beaufort NC.

Plasticine is copyrighted to Humbrol, a division of Hornby-Hobbies Ltd. Though now that I've found out more about it, maybe I shouldn't have used that substance for the tables at BN to be made out of. Eh, whatever.

A certain reference is from something copyrighted to The Curiosity Company and 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp.

**Chapter 9: Tara Explains It All **

From time to time, the 'cool, cool, cool of the evening' - noted in story and song - has been observed to have certain therapeutic properties. Depending on who you ask, when you're inside and feeling bad for any reason, going outside is supposed to be beneficial to your health. This is a variant nocturnal version of the old parental saw about how people need 'fresh air and sunshine'. It's the original panacea / elixir of life, pre-dating chicken soup, warm milk, or the apple a day.

Those inherent healing properties were apparently being proven anew on this night. First a close-to-catatonic Ron Stoppable was brought out of whatever he was under with a minute or two outside, and now his best friend Kim Possible was coming out of it, as they say. She hadn't quite made it yet, though; as the actions of her date, Ron, and his date will attest.

"Kim?"

"Kim?"

"Kim?"

Their concerns might have been overblown, or they might not have. At any rate, being propelled outside by the three of them, Kim's fog cleared at about the middle of the school parking lot.

"Oh, wha, what happened?"

"You, kind of blanked out, like Ron did." Tara replied.

"But the--" she was cut off by her best friend, accidentally of course.

"Yeah, I did. That's, it's a wonderful thing, this night air that they talk about. It's, an amazing cure, it uh, cleared up my head and then, cleared up yours too, I guess, apparently…"

As Ron trailed off, Josh finally decided to speak.

"So, uh, what happened?"

"Well, I was…"

As Kim tried to piece together the past several minutes, Tara again bent Ron's ear, much as she had at the beginning of those minutes.

"Ron, weren't you gonna ask...?"

"Oh, oh yeah," Ron remembered, before again interrupting his best friend.

"Kim, uh, Josh, is it all right if we ride to Bueno Nacho with you?"

Since it was his car they'd be taking, all eyes turned to Josh.

"Uh, I guess, I mean, it would mean, you in the back seat."

"Sounds like how we got here." Tara smirked.

O

That's when a little something occurred to Kim.

"Wait, what about your ride, didn't you…? Ron said your brother brought you."

"Yeah, I'll give him the night off; he'd rather be racing that thing anyway."

"Racing." Kim repeated.

Ron backed up his date. "Yeah, oh, it's a classic Plymouth, but you don't want to get him started on that, 'cause according to her, he goes on and on…"

"Yes, on and on." the platinum blonde agreed shaking her head.

Kim nodded, understanding as much as she was able to with the limited information at hand. "So when does he get here?"

Ron went into one of his trademark moves - scratching the back of his neck - as his face screwed up in thought.

"Oh, it was a bit of a gray area, he was talking about, maybe two hours, maybe three hours."

The sister's smirk returned. "Oh he'll be here, if I know my brother... there he is!" she triumphantly finished.

"Here he is." Ron agreed, as the light blue '55 Plymouth pulled into the parking lot.

The driver's window was rolled down - obviously with an old-fashioned hand crank - as the driver's head came into view of those assembled. His mouth opened.

"Hey."

Kim took in his appearance. Those callous eyes, that green backwards ball cap, that semi-vacant expression, that slight sneer of the lip, that waterfall of blonde hair going down his back with no end in sight - she idly wondered if she'd ever even thought to make the connection as she recognized the guy.

"Wait a minute, isn't that…?"

"Junior, yep, from detention, as opposed to Senor Senior Junior", Ron was quick to confirm.

"But, he's Tara's brother?"

"Apparently so."

Here Josh again tried to contribute to the conversation.

"Wait, you know him?"

Kim grimaced with the memory. "Yeah, I met him in detention."

"But, cheerleaders don't do detention," the artist reminded the captain of the almost-stereotype.

"I had tardiness issues, all right?" she barked out, before switching her ire to her best friend. "And the last tardy wasn't really my fault, Ron!"

Meanwhile, Tara was informing her brother of their change in plans. He was amenable to the new arrangement, and not as quiet about vocalizing.

"Ho, sure, thanks, Tara. Ok, you guys can find your way home?" He called out to the others.

Ron nodded, "Sure." before Kim figured something out and dashed to seize an opportunity about to drive off into the night.

"Just a minute, Tara. I want to have a word with your brother!" she interjected as she moved in front of the car, forcing Junior to stop.

"Okay." Tara replied diffidently.

Kim moved from the front over to the driver's window to address the detention regular. "Junior!"

"Hey, cheerleader." He nodded.

"Junior, when I was in detention with you guys, you said you'd never been that close to a cheerleader before."

He shrugged. "Yeah?"

"Well, what about Tara?"

His eyes narrowed with thought, then focused on the redhead, with the rest of his head along for the ride. "What about her?" he again shrugged.

Exasperated, Kim pointed at her squad-mate. "She's a cheerleader!"

It took him a minute to process that, but when he did, his eyebrows suddenly got lost in the mane he kept under his cap.

"Whoa. Tara, you're a cheerleader?" he exclaimed as his face whipped around to look at his sister in what might be mistaken for a panic attack.

Ron then tried to reason with the guy.

"Junior, dude, you can't mean that you've never recognized her on the squad, two spots over from Kim?"

But the attack only continued as big brother apparently became more and more disgusted, with himself.

"Whoa! That was you? Whoa, and I was thinking-- I was having thou-- Ugh! That ain't right!"

As he ended, he was going into compulsive convulsions. His sister, the picture of embarrassment, was shaking her head with her eyes closed behind the hand that was plastered over her forehead.

"You see, this is why I don't talk about my family."

Ron nodded in empathy. "Ah, brother embarrassment issues. Kim can relate."

"I can so relate." She nodded as a rueful grin forced its way onto her face in spite of herself. All things considered, Kim was not inclined to feel sympathetic toward Tara; and yet, as a sister with annoying brothers, she couldn't help it.

Seconds later, Junior's mind emerged from the extra layers of fog that had recently been applied to it. Whatever thoughts he might have been having about she-who-turned-out-to-be his sister, were significantly affecting him. Shaking his head once more, he shifted out of park and prepared to jet.  
"Yeah, take your time, I think I'm going to be needing to do some major racing to take this off my mind, whoa!"

O

The Plymouth peeled out of the parking lot with no more time wasted, shifting gears and slinging gravel. The tail end was witnessed by a certain assistant principal, just emerging from the network of educational buildings. Apparently recognizing the vehicle and / or driver, he ran the few yards to the last place on-campus it was to vainly shake his fist at same.

"Non-conformist punk!"

Having vented his spleen, and muttering things under his breath to the effect of extra detention, the one we know as Barkin turned from the street, to find himself face to face with our four students of record, if some yards away. Settling down in jig time, he marched up to within one and a half feet of them, stopped, and glared.

"Stoppable, Possible, Mankey, Gardner. Explanation, now!"

Kim was the first to find her voice.

"Oh, uh, we, we're leaving the dance"

"Yeah, it's over, we're going to…" followed by Ron.

Maybe Barkin wanted to punish them despite being unable to find any reason to, but he did have the reputation of being tough but fair; so he dismissed them. "Very well, proceed."  
It was at this point that the platinum blonde remembered something.

"Oh, Mr. Barkin, is it all right if I, uh, you know that Monday is, uh the, uh, the rocket boosters open house at the space center, and um, Kim and Ron usually have that day off so they can attend."

"Affirmative."

"Well, is it all right if I, uh, take the day off to attend there too?"

She'd asked that question in her usual cheery voice and with her usual disposition, with maybe a modicum of nervousness, it being an unusual request from her, much less of him. That modicum, however, grew by the second as he fixed her with a gimlet eye. What he said next caused her eyes to grow exponentially for about a second.

"I've been meaning to talk to you, Miss Gardner. It seems that the dean of female students has received a complaint from Mr. Testaverde about you abusing your time-of-the-month restroom privilege."

Now the nervousness was in full bloom as the power of coherent speech temporarily left her.

"Oh, well, uh--"

"And now you're asking for a day off, excused, on top of that."

"Well um,--" By now her right arm had snaked its way back and around her body to where the hand was lightly convulsing near the opposite hip, as her eyes were apparently attracted to the sight of the parking lot at her feet.

At this moment, Stoppable stepped up for his date, again. He also stepped forward, in between her and the assistant principal.

"Mr. Barkin, uh, whatever punishment you were going to give her--"

"No, Ron! don't do this again!" she squeaked as that hand flew around to grab his arm. He shrugged it off, though, and then he shrugged again.

"He's going to do it anyway." he reasoned as he craned his neck to briefly glimpse in her direction. Then, he resignedly turned back toward the veteran. "Extra homework?"

The man nodded in confirmation. "Extra homework."

His usual apparently gratuitous punishment of Mr. Never-Be-Normal taken care of, Barkin then swung his glowering gaze toward the other two teenagers, passing over Possible to fix on the frosty-haired artist.

"What about you, Mankey; you want some of this?"

The young man - already nervous - was taken aback, but recovered quickly.

"Uh, no, I'm, I'm gonna, I mean I'm new here, I'm, I'd better, not be taking a day off, anytime soon."

"Good idea." the man nodded before turning his gaze on the others, including Kim, who had crossed over to the blond couple in support of her friend. "Very well. The three of you will be stopping by the office to pick up your assignments for the day, and your homework."

"Yes, Mr. Barkin." the three of them chorused.

"Very well. Carry on."

With nothing more for him to say, the authority figure left their company to return to the gym; why he had left it in the first place, they never found out.

O

With that sizable factor removed from their interaction, the four teenagers were a minute or two finding something to say to each other. Finally, and not surprisingly, it was Ron who broke the silence.

"All right, I guess we'd better…" he trailed off.

With the ice broken, Kim picked up the conversation where Ron had dropped it, and ran with it.

"Yeah, we'd better get to the car and get to Bueno Nacho before Barkin loads us with more homework."

"He'll do it, too," Ron agreed as they moved toward Josh's red convertible. Lagging behind, he cast a glance back at the gym, adding under his breath, "…and it vexes me so!"

"C'mon, Extra Homework Boy!" Kim called back toward him; by now the others were at the car. Ron turned and hustled to catch up to them.

He managed to brake before he hit the car - he even did the gentleman's duty by opening the door for Tara on the driver's side of the back seat, behind Josh, who was doing the same for Kim on the other side. That action earned Ron a "thank you" and a kiss on the cheek.

Then - a bit under the influence from the latest blonde buss - he ran back around the back of the car and leaped, intending to land on his seat in the passenger's side back seat, behind Kim and next to Tara. But the phrase about there being many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip continued to apply to the young man. He found himself with the front of his seat in the seat, but his head and arms and upper body looked like he was trying to crawl under where Kim was sitting. When he pulled himself out of that sitch, he found the others in various degrees in between looking at him, trying not to look at him, or trying not to look like they were looking at him. "Not one word." ran through his mind, although he didn't say it out loud, and if he did it wasn't loud enough for anyone to hear, or that's what he told himself.

O

Finally righting himself and buckling up, Ron looked at their transportation as Josh started the motor. Desperate to steer the still-to-come conversation away from his latest pratfall, he decided to take control of the former. "Nice wheels, Josh."  
With the tone set, the others fell in line, including the driver.

"Yeah, thanks. What can I say, my parents like to spoil me."

Then something occurred to Kim, a few hours late.

"But, you're not legally allowed to drive yet, are you?"

"I have a learner's permit." Josh defended.

"But there's no one of driving age in the car here." she pointed out.

Then Ron came to the other male's defense.

"Oh, wait a minute, KP. Combined, our ages make at least 60. I mean, even counting off for Josh, the rest of us add up to at least 45, what, 45, 46, 47?"

"It doesn't work that way, Ron!"

"Hey, It works for me." Tara piped up.

"Me, too." Josh agreed.

Finding herself alone in her argument, Kim turned back from looking at Ron and leaned back in her seat in resignation.

"Fine; it's just to Bueno Nacho, and if I was going to object, I should have said something on the way here."

A block passed before Kim spoke again. "Oh, and we insist on chipping in for the gas."

Tara agreed, but had a visible reaction to the idea. "Oh, yes, it's getting crazy! It's getting to be 2.00 a gallon again, and this time it looks like it's going to stay that way!"  
"Oh, don't get me started on that." Josh moaned, shaking his head.

O

Minutes later found the quartet at the unofficial Team Possible booth at Ron's favorite eatery (It had beaten Cow 'n' Chow 2 to 1 in a Ron-wide poll). Kim and Ron were in their usual spots, with their respective dates sitting between them and the wall. In Ron's case it was basic chivalry, but since Josh had never been there before, they had agreed that since she was more familiar with the place, she should be on the outside.

They were starting on their orders. Kim and Tara had kept it light, Josh - guided by Ron - had a moderate meal, and Ron - big surprise - had a large evening repast. As they ate, Kim cast an occasional glance at Tara; she hadn't forgotten the ladies room run-in with her fellow cheerleader.

Josh, meanwhile, was looking at his plate rather pensively.

He'd been the only one to order a milkshake as opposed to a soda, and he was gripping the cup a little bit tightly. Kim noticed.

"What is it, Josh?"

"Do they have fries at this place?"

Kim's eyes widened; she knew what would happen next, so she grabbed the nearest menu and held it in between her and Ron. Tara, not quite as in tune with what made her date tick, was not as prepared for the ensuing spit-take from Ron. She did get lucky in that she only had a slight dousing and Kim's menu took the brunt of the contents of Ron's mouth.

"RON!" Kim couldn't help but react. She and her target were on their feet in a second, with Tara quick to slide down to join them.

The next few minutes are best forgotten, with Kim leading Tara to the ladies room, the last time they were in such a place being far from their minds. Ron followed them halfway, falling all over himself in apology, with Josh remaining seated in his place by the wall, wondering what had just happened there.

"Was it something I said?", he wondered.

As she helped clean off her squad-mate, it could not be said that Kim didn't try to get any information from Tara about what they'd discussed in that other ladies room, but while the blonde was polite, she was firm in not speaking about it until they were back with the guys.

O

Eventually, everyone was back in their places. As the others started back on their orders, Ron wisely held back until he'd explained his reaction.

"Josh, this is Bueno Nacho, Home of Tex-Mex! Fries are neither Mex nor Tex!" Here he grabbed the artist's milkshake to make a point. "Milkshakes is pushing it as it is." Setting it back down, he continued, faltering as he went on. "Fries are, they're, French, right? Or is it freedom, I, I get confused, wait, is the boycott still on?"

He was looking from one of his fellow diners to another as he continued to sputter. Forestalling any further embarrassment - and the possibility of the discussion veering into politics - Kim grabbed an enchirito from Ron's plate and thrust one end far into his mouth. More than one "whew!" was thought, and perhaps heard.

Then something occurred to Kim. "Oh, Tara, I owe you a soda."

Something similar occurred to the object of that comment.

"Oh, and I owe Ron a soda."

"And I probably won't be paying off all the sodas I owe Kim anytime soon." Ron chimed in with resignation.

Josh, recovered from being the target of Ron's vocal onslaught, tried to get into the conversation. "Well, you three could pay for each other's, which would be the same as paying for your own, right? I'm fine with what I have here." he finished, hefting his milkshake.

O

With that settled, the platinum blonde - who had finished her food - took a sizable sip of her Slurpster and got down to business, much to the temporary relief of her captain.

"All right, now that we're all settled in, there's a little business to take care of. Someone here owes someone else an apology."

She said that with her most intimidating stare - not that that was saying much - on Kim, but Ron, well used to being the one at fault, made what was to him an understandable conclusion.

"Aw, man! I knew I'd mess up someway, thought I was doing so well, too!" he overreacted as his upper body sprawled onto the table, almost reaching Kim's plate, as his arms flailed in helplessness on either side of his head.

Tara was quick to console her date as she grabbed one of his hands with one of hers. "You are, Ron! You're-- you're not the one who owes the apology; you're the one that an apology is owed to!" Saying that, her gaze returned to the redhead.

Ron, sitting up, still didn't get it, however. "A, what-what?"

Kim had been holding up pretty well up to now; no one beat her in a glare-down - outside of family - but what Tara was saying had her reeling inside. On the outside, she was no longer glaring but giving the appearance of pondering.

"Wait, okay, who owes-- that's what this is about? You think I did something to Ron?"

"I know you did; I saw it!" Now the blonde was practically in her captain's face.

"You saw what?"

The platinum blonde's expression has some elements of disappointment and disbelief. "You really don't know, do you?"

Neither did Ron, not that that was saying much. "Wait, what? Tara, what are you talking about?"

"In a minute, Ronnie." she said, continuing to squeeze his hand. "And they say YOU'RE oblivious." she muttered under her breath before turning back to her target. "Kim, do you remember when you finally hooked up with Josh today?"

"Yeah, I was, at his locker."

"Which is next to?"

"The janitor's closet."

"Where you and Ron were."

"Yeah."

"What did Ron do?"

"Well," Kim responded thoughtfully, looking at her BFF as she recounted, "he was a perfect friend, perfect best friend, encouraging me the whole way. He even got out that stupid bullhorn; I don't know where he got it from. He encouraged me, all the way, saying I could do this, gave me the push I needed."

"Mm-hmm. And what did you do in return?"

"What?

"When you and Josh had finally made the date with each other and were walking off. Remember the bullhorn? Remember 'I need a ride, too!'?"

Kim was trying to remember the events of earlier that day, really she was. Finally, it was coming back to her. The bullhorn phrase was probably what did it. Suddenly she gasped and her eyes widened. She looked from her friend to her prosecutor and back and forth as her jaw started to tremble. Tara kept up the attack.

"You kicked that door closed; you slammed it shut! And every student here knows that it locks where if you close it hard enough, it can't be unlocked from the inside. And then you walked off and left him, and why? Just because he said he needed a ride, on that bullhorn? For that, you imprisoned him? If I hadn't been there, Ron could have been trapped for, who knows how long? Hours, overnight, the whole weekend!"

Everything she said was hitting home now. Kim withered under the assault of the facts of her thoughtlessness, feeling each phrase like the lash of a whip. As her head began a career that wouldn't end until it hit hard plasticine, the only sound from her was a high-pitched whine.

"Oh, no…"

Defending her guy, the normally bubbly one was merciless.

"You did that to your best friend. I've got to say, as bad as Bonnie is, she would never have done that to me, not over some guy."

Part of Ron was flattered at being spoken on behalf of in such a way, and yet, it couldn't compete with the part that felt what was happening to his best friend almost as if it was happening to him. Automatically, a hand reached across the table as he tried to console her.

"Hey, it's no big."

He did manage to get her to look up, her sad eyes locking with his soulful ones.

"No, it is big. You were great and, and I just, slammed the door on you, literally." Her eyes closed as the tears started to flow; she couldn't even look at him after what she'd done.

Ron was distraught, grabbing every unused napkin on the table - and a couple that had been used - to try to stop the flow of tears, using every trick he could think of to try to cheer up his friend. He was grabbing her hands now, trying to raise her head from its supine position.

"Aw, KP, it's all right. I mean, so you accidentally locked me in the closet; I switched sides and backed Wally in the student elections. It evens out!" he reasoned out loud, desperately trying to get her to stop crying.

The redhead was starting to understand the ancient proverb about coals of fire on her head. "Ron…"

"Kim…" he managed to get a finger under her chin, and lifted her head by that to ultimately look him in the eyes. "All right, so you did something wrong, to me. I forgive you, okay? Can we move on now? Please?" He was almost ready to start crying himself.

To Kim, he might as well have been using the Puppy Dog Pout - and maybe he was. For his sake, she made an effort to make things right with her accuser. "Tara?" she hopefully inquired as her field of vision was moved to the side to take in the sight of the blonde avenger.

The accuser glared at her captain for a few more seconds, then her gaze softened.

"You've apologized to Ron, and he's forgiven you, that's good enough for me." Then her gazed hardened again. "Just don't EVER do anything like that to him again! Or you'll hear from me again."

"I won't, never again." she shook her head and swung both forearms and hands to make her feelings crystal clear.

"Good." The other cheerleader decided to let up, but she did have just a bit more to say. "A friendship like the two of you have, it's a rare and precious thing. It should never be taken for granted. He has your back; you should have his."

A chastened girl - who had finally acknowledged adding betraying her best friend to her can-do-anything resume - nodded. Seconds later, a small smile finally graced those lips as she remembered a solid she'd done said best friend.

"I did set him up with you, kind of."

"For which I am eternally grateful." the platinum blonde grinned.

"Ditto." Ron raised a finger to second that emotion.

Time passed in silence as the others were seemingly waiting for Ron to finish his sizable order. As he ate, though, Ron did take a thought for his best friend. He managed to get Josh's attention and silently indicated that Kim might need a hug of support and encouragement from her date. While the artist's question - once he'd gotten the attention of his date - was silent, you didn't have to be a lip-reader to know that he'd asked her if she needed a hug, a question she apparently answered in the affirmative. Tara couldn't help but smile at the concern Ron showed for his friend, although a part of her wanted some of that support herself. To that end, she managed to maneuver her way almost to sitting on him and, well, let's just say she got a hug too. The two couples lived it up in the blessed land of no PDA rules.

O

The late night repast over, Kim stirred from the embrace of the golden hottie. She still had some things to get off her chest, and now seemed as good a time as any.  
"So, Tara, if we're cool now?"

The blonde likewise stirred, although reluctantly. "Mm-hmm."

"I've got to know: how did you do it?"

Puzzlement came to those blue eyes. "Do what?"

"Everything!" Now Kim was in her face, although her speech patterns proved to be somewhat more disjointed; any of her English teachers who might have overheard would have been driven to tears of despair. "I mean, it seems that you had something to do with everything that went on tonight! Your call last night, telling me to ask Josh, you said something about-- and then you, wanting to go with us to the space center, you wanted to, and double dating to Bueno Nacho here, and, and, and what happened between you and me in the restroom, and, that sitch in the hallway, just before we left? And just try to convince me that you didn't have anything to do with Bonnie and Brick getting together! I guess that's it, but, it's enough!" She took a well-earned breath as she ended her questions.

Tara nodded. "All right, I guess I have some explaining to do. You see, I wanted this date with Ron…"

"Aww," the other couple chorused; Josh, who hadn't been contributing much to the dialogue, decided to participate as much as he could, the better to overcome the stigma of being the new kid.

Tara was shaking her head. "I mean, really, really wanted it.

I've been crushing on him so hard--"

"Since Wannaweep." Kim thought she finished the phrase, but was surprised when the head-shaking continued.

"No, before that! I mean, back when he helped us win Regionals, actually when he joined the squad, I mean--"

"Now I think about it, you were the only one who didn't object to him joining. I mean, even I objected-- sorry Ron."

Kim again apologized to her compadre.

"At any rate, when he helped us win the Regionals-- you were kind of off there, you know." Tara added as an aside to Kim, which set off both members of Team Possible in trying to come up with an explanation.

"Oh," Kim began, taking turns with Ron.

"Uh,"

"Um,"

"Well,"

"Uh,"

"There's a story behind that, Tara--"

"Later, Ron." Kim hurriedly interrupted, figuring their dates might not be ready to hear about the time the two of them were in each other's bodies. Then, using her panic, she turned the topic back around. "You were saying? And Tara, you do know that you're taking a chance on making his head swell bigger than it was when I made him get that haircut, or when he had me dating Brick for the Ron Report?" She finished in humor, hoping to distract the dates enough so they'd forget what Ron had almost revealed.

Apparently it worked. "You're right. Right. The point is, I had a date with Ron, and I didn't want to lose that!"

"How were you going to lose that?" her date wondered out loud.

Tara faced Ron, and then Kim. "Well, I could see how the dominoes were going to fall. Kim, you told me that you wanted to date Josh."

"Yeah."

"And, I knew that you were having problems asking him. And I knew that Bonnie was interested in him, too."

"But I'd already said 'no'." Josh said.

"I know. She was going to ask you again."

"It wouldn't have done any good."

That brought the platinum blonde up short. "Huh?" she chorused with Kim; no one thought to call 'Jinx'.

"I'd have just said 'no' again." he averred, before turning to his date. "You're the one I really wanted to come to the dance with."

"Oh." the two girls chorused, again, not thinking to call 'jinx'.

But now Ron felt he had to point something out. "Josh, dude, you know, you could have asked her."

"I, wha- what?"

"It's Spirit Week tradition. Spirit Week Dance, equal opportunity, my friend. Anyone can ask anyone. Hey, KP, remember last year we saw some senior come with two dates?"

"Oh, don't remind me. And getting back to Tara…"

"What? Oh. Well, I just, I could see how things were going to happen. Bonnie would ask Josh - she can be mighty persistent when she's going after something; she usually gets what she wants."

Ice-blue eyes turned to the cold fire of outrage in the frosty-haired artist. "I'm not a thing for her to--"

"I know, I know. But I could see you saying 'yes' to her, which would leave Kim over here high and dry, and Ron might feel obligated as her best friend, I mean, they've always gone to dances together. He might feel obligated to go with her, even if it meant breaking it off with me, and then where would I be?"

"So that was why you gave me that push last night."

"Yeah. And then this morning, I kind of stuck to Bonnie like glue because I was afraid that you'd grill me if you got me alone."

"I'd have done it too. And as a side effect, Bonnie didn't get a chance to work on Josh. Okay, next question: a few minutes ago, you laid out for us what happened with Josh and me, and Ron in the closet. How did you know?"

"I was there. You remember Barkin mentioned me abusing my 'time of the month' privilege?"

"Yeah."

"Well, you see, Josh and I have third period next door to each other. I heard the door to the classroom that he was in close, and I knew that he was getting out early to go to the gym, to finalize the banners and such, and, well, that's when I used it."

"You were following me?" Josh had to ask.

She smirked again, this time directly in front of her to where he was facing her. "Don't flatter yourself; my intentions were strictly dishonorable, and had nothing to do with you." Then she turned back to the redhead. "I figured that if neither you or he were going to get the courage to actually pop the question…"

"Wait, you would have actually pushed us together, even if it meant betraying Bonnie, your best friend?" Kim had always known Tara to be a very nice girl, but this was just a bit much.

Tara slumped momentarily; when she brought her face up again, it had taken on a frightened mien. "I honestly don't know; I'm just glad I didn't have to find out." She then grabbed both hands of her crush. "Ron came to the rescue, again. I should have had more faith in him."

"Aw, Tara." he couldn't help hugging her again at her declarations.

After absorbing this latest cache of facts, Kim kept on going.

"Okay, well then, what about everything that happened tonight? The space center, the double date, the sitch in the hall, Bonnie and Brick!"

"Well, the space center request was genuine enough. I really do want to go! Look after the little kids, hang with Ron-- not necessarily in that order."

"Sha!" Ron had been blushing for some time; this only added to it.

"And, about the double date, I thought that would be the best way for me to explain everything, would be if we, you know, came here together…"

"Sat at the same table and everything." the captain figured out.

"Right. And, uh, well, about the rest of it. Let me go back to earlier tonight, around seven, seven-fifteen. Before I got in the car to go to Ron's, I made a couple of phone calls. I called the Stoppables to get directions, from your father?" she asked, looking back at Ron.

He nodded, "Mm-hmm."

"But before that, I called Brick. You see, it was…"

o

RRRRRRRIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGG!!

"Hello?

"Brick?! What are you still doing there?"

"Uh, Tara?"

"That's right, and you have some explaining to do, although you probably shouldn't even try."

"What-?"

"Why are you still at home? The dance is tonight!"

"Well, I don't have a date!"

"Hello? Bonnie? She got tired of waiting for you and went on, she's there right now!"

"But, but, she said we were finished."

"Well, hasn't she said that before?"

"Yeah."

"Well, you keep breaking up, you keep getting back together, so now you're back together!"

"We are?"

"Yes! She's there, alone, waiting for you!"

"But, I, I--"

"But nothing! You shouldn't even be talking to me, you should hang up right now, and do what you have to do to get there, but get there!"

"Uh, I--"

"Brick, you know how Bonnie doesn't like to be kept waiting."

"Oh, yeah, she's a mean girl!"

"And she's your date."

"Right! My date. I, I'd better hang up, uh, um, Tara--"

CLICK!

o

"And, then I called Mr. Stoppable, and…" she finished that line by holding her hands up and out, saying either 'voila' or 'I give up'; it was a toss-up.

"So, why'd he get there so late?" Kim was slowly working her way through all of the questions she'd had and was doing pretty well.

For the second time in a few minutes, the blonde opened with the same phrase, with a different tone of voice. "I honestly don't know, I mean, he should have gotten there after the first hour at the latest. I don't know what held him up."

"Okay, and, the hall, the locker, the closet?"

"Well, I just went over how I was there at the original event?"

"Yes."

"I figured you might remember what you did to him--"

"Sorry." Kim would probably be apologizing for that for some time.

"--if I recreated it, which meant that you Ron and Josh had to be there, doing what you were doing then. I didn't think it would be a problem getting Ron there; when we left earlier today, he forgot Rufus for a minute, had to go back for him. By the way, Kim, Rufus wasn't too happy about what happened either. I think what he said was 'not cool!', but I'm not sure about that."

Kim turned to Ron. "Could you convey my apologies to Rufus?"

"Sure, no big."

"Where is Rufus, by the way?"

"He said I'd have to handle this without my wing man."

Now Kim was smirking. "That's a smart little naked mole rat."

"And he said he'd be busy. tonight anyway".

"Doing what?"

o

In point of fact, the naked mole rat was conducting his business that night on Ron's computer, following the latest goings-on in a certain role-playing game with great interest.

This Wraith-Master, while strictly small fry by mole rat standards - and that's saying something - was being a bit noisy. He was gaining too much power too quickly, destroying too many other players. Rufus knew that the time for the Tunnel Lord to return to Everlot was drawing nigh.

o

Back to Bueno Nacho, where Tara was still explaining.

"Anyway, I didn't think I'd have a problem getting Ron back there. I told him that he'd forgotten Rufus, he might have forgotten something else. I was counting on the bullhorn being there, and it was. So then it was just a matter of getting you two there. While I was dancing with Josh, I told him that we'd like to see what artwork he was working on - that was true, by the way, Josh." she diverted, turning to the frosty-haired artist in front of her. "I mean, what you've done with the banners--"

"Yes, your banners are so better than mine were." Kim chimed in.

The artist's eyebrows rose. "Yours were?"

She colored slightly. "Yeah, I was in charge of banners until recently. The committee saw your work, and we voted unanimously to give the job to you."

"Thanks."

Ron put in. "Hey, you have no idea of the kind of pressure she's under with all of her clubs and committees and volunteer work, the tutoring and…" here he looked toward the blonde sitting next to him. "That was the only time I was ever scared of you, Tara, I mean, seeing you backing up Bonnie and looking as mean as she did."

"Oh." Now it was her turn to color, before remembering something. "But, I don't remember seeing YOU when I was like that."

"Oh, well,--"

The conversation was again getting to the brain-switch incident, so again Kim put a stop to that. "That's that story that we mentioned. Later."

"Right, right, later." Ron was quick to agree.

Tara wrapped up her impromptu presentation, turning and / or gesturing toward each subject as she mentioned them.

"And I was counting on him having future projects in his locker, and he did, and I was counting on you to go with him, and you did, and the pieces were in place. It was just a matter of getting Ron to do what he did then when you and Josh were passing by. He did, and… I was hoping that would trigger a memory, make you remember what you'd done to him before I had to tell you. So..." Here she trailed off before figuring she had nothing left to say. "...aw, skip it. And, that's how I did it."

There was silence until the Mad Dog started to applaud.

"Bravo! Take a bow, Tara!"

She graciously declined, while blushing.

O

Time passed, and all assembled figured it was time to go home, but then Josh spoke up again.

"Okay, you know I'm new here, basically. Who's Wally? You mentioned him earlier."

Another small increment of seconds elapsed before the other three reacted. Nobody could say who laughed first, but their respective reactions fed and were fed by each other, resulting in a general giggling fit lasting for minutes. When they'd recovered, the three took turns recounting to the newcomer the tale of the royal from Rodegan, the prince who became president, got turned on to democracy, and was stoked enough to the Western way of doing things to decide to abolish the monarchy in his homeland.

"Has anyone seen Wally lately, by the way?" Ron asked.

Kim and Tara hadn't seen him, and Josh wouldn't have known the royal on sight, so the answer was unanimous and in the negative.

Kim offered, "It's like after the election, he just disappeared."

"But on the plus side, things seem to have run pretty well in the school, from what I could see." Ron put in. "I guess he hasn't messed up or done anything wrong or we'd have heard about it, I guess.

That's when the now-again-bubbly blonde recalled something. "When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."

That got Kim's attention. "Where did you get that?"

That was met by a shrug. "Oh, some TV show, I think."

"O-kay, well," and here Kim hoisted her Slurpster. "...here's to Wally, who's doing a bang-up job as school president, apparently." The Zoidbergian toast was met with whatever liquid was left in the collective paper / plastic glasses.

The four continued talking about anything and everything for awhile after that.

O

Okay, folks. We've all been here, we know the drill, say it with me: The next chapter will probably be the last chapter, but… Seriously, I don't see how there's that much more to happen in this story. They'll get out, they'll go home, they'll call or IM each other and other friends - cough Bonnie cough - end of story, right? We'll see. Until then - and after then as well, if you want to talk with me, online, on e-mail (AOL currently, with change to Cable One pending), or on AIM; I'm Nftnat. Cy'all.


	10. Saying Good Night

As a certain droopy dog used to say, hello, folks.

Going on five months without an update, now that ain't right, although my Hey Arnold fans - if there are any left - would tell you that you have nothing to complain about. Let's see, lots going on in RL: switching jobs, cleaning out the house, dealing with living on less money, going back to college (second bachelor's, this one in accounting; it seems I'm slated to be the next Burn Berman); but enough about me. Y'all want the next chapter, and if the ten reviews (one for the previous chapter), three story alerts, four favorite author and author alerts - not to mention the eleven reviews and seven favorite story and story alerts on New Hottie In Town, Kind Of - are any indication; I owe this to you. So, here it is.

But first, the latest round of reviews:

daccu65, thanks. The phrase 'not with a bang but with a whimper' comes to mind. This is mostly the end, although I do have a loose thread that will take that last chapter. And I'm glad someone noticed Junior.

kaiokken, thank you. No cliffie here, just a nice little plateau. Does that make any sense? I didn't think so either. And yeah, Kim and Tara burying the hatchet, I agree. (of course I agree; I wrote it)

Thank you, Jim. People, use the phrase 'dumb blonde' at your peril. Underestimate blondes at your peril.

Thanks, Mr. Average. You know, as many of y'all review my fics, I really should return the favor more often; which is to say that I've been reading A Stand-Up Gal and look forward to Chapter Five. I'll go into more detail on my review. Yes, Tara, well, she lived up to the title of the chapter. And as it turns out, I've delayed enough to where gas is almost back to two dollars a gallon. Who knew?

Two-for-one-thank you, acosta. Tara was indeed counting on Kim's concern for her reputation and so many other things. While the odds were in her favor on every single one of them, put all those variables together and the probability of something going wrong increased exponentially. Fortunately for all concerned, nothing did, with the possible exception of Brick's delay (I don't know where to go with that, so I'm considering that thread dropped). And we have that rarity of rarities, Kim actually apologizing. While she is polite to a fault, she has the same credo as my brother and Davy Crockett: Be sure you're right, then go ahead. Thus, she rarely believes herself to be wrong. Here, though, the evidence presented was against her and when she was confronted with it, what could she do? And oh, Futurama! Since the move from CN/AS to CC I lost track of that show, and those chiron-slashed credits, oh, the pain, the pain!

Thanks to my panda pal. Yeah, Ron forgives Kim too easily; what can we do, other than try to write something where he holds her accountable. (checks the psyche for such an idea) Nope, not happening here. Sorry. IMO Tara does a good enough job of that. And I'm working in some more fluff.

(On another subject, you seem to be in Mace Ecam's inner circle; I wouldn't mind joining his little insurgency in the Kimmunity. And I wonder if he will ever come up with the TaRon plot bunny or clone or whatever it is.) And Futurama, see above.

Thank you, SWP. Let's see, Tara explaining, check. Futurama, check. Junior, check; what can I say, it seems Tara got all the sense in the family. I have an idea or two about the body-switch thing; we'll see.

Thank you, Slade. I am winding this particular story down, but not the story arc. The TaRoniverse is alive and well, and it is strong with this one. Be on the lookout for the sequel, Cheerleader Locker Room Confessions, sometime next year (or the year after that, considering my track record).

And thanks, NaruHarem (hmm, might have to check your stories; although I might have to check Naruto first). Here's the update.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You know, it's the strangest thing. I know I used to know how to edit these things after posting; I've done it before. Lately, though, although I got into the chapter and change it just fine, when I got back to re-reading it, nothing had changed. So I didn't get to change that last bit of the previous chapter, so I'm leading off with my re-imagining of it. Consider it a DVD alternate scene er sum junk. And away we go!

O

Chapter Ten: Saying Good Night

O

"O-kay, well, then," and here Kim hoisted her Slurpster. "...here's to Wally, who's doing a bang-up job as school president, apparently."  
The Zoidbergian toast was cut short when Kim heard an aristocratic voice behind her say, "Why, thank you."  
The cheer captain tempted whiplash with how fast her neck whipped around, only to be denied as she saw the door to Bueno Nacho close, in between her and whoever was leaving. She turned back to the others, almost as quickly.  
Pointing toward the door, she started, "Was that--?"  
Unfortunately, nobody else had been paying attention to those around them and the group had to face the fact that they would probably never know if Prince Wally had indeed been there, perhaps listening to their story of him from a ringside seat, as it were.  
It took a while, but they managed to get over the surreality of it all.

O

In due time, however, Ron was holding forth with another Team Possible anecdote. Tara, still quite comfortable in his arms, had made no move to dislodge his embrace and had indeed discouraged all efforts on his part to do so. Not so the other couple; there was currently about a foot between Josh and Kim, who currently had her elbows on the table (not the best of manners there) and her head in her hands at the embarrassment. She was the only one there who was not amused.  
"…and then she said that she wanted to run for class president, not class clown!"  
"Ron! Why are you--?"  
"And then I said, 'Suit yourself; clowns have more fun'."  
Another round of laughter from three of the four people there.  
"I thought it was 'blondes have more fun'; I know I do." Tara said, snuggling into the hug yet again.  
"Well, then, I'm covered on both counts, aren't I?"  
Yet another round of laughter, from the same three.  
"Speaking as the only non-blonde here--"  
Whatever the non-blonde was trying to say was drowned out by those same three, saying, whatever.

O

It had been quite a night; and now, as if to signal its end, Kim lifted the Kimmunicator to check it, for what, Ron knew not.  
"Aw, Kim! You're not going to check for a mission now? Let Wade get some sleep already!"  
One eyebrow rose. "Ron, it has a clock feature?" she reminded him.  
"Oh yeah." he eked out as his right hand yet again exhibited a magnetic attraction to the back of his neck. The other hand was on an arm that was comfortably around the shoulders of Tara, who was feeling even more comfortable.  
"Ron, we'd better be getting home; you have temple in the morning."  
The words of his best friend brought the house of cards in his mind crashing down as his eyes widened, his grip on his date turning a bit stiff. They had to pay close attention to hear him whisper, "Oh, me busted!"  
An impish grin came to Kim's face. "Looks like it's late service for the Stoppable family again."  
"Rabbi Katz will notice it too," he groaned. "He always does."  
The resident image of innocence then innocently asked a question.  
"Would it be all right if I went with you?"  
"What?"  
"Tara," said Kim, "I know you want to spend some time with him, but, the Rocket Boosters is one thing… I didn't even know you were Jewish!"  
"I'm not; I'm non-denominational - the same church your family attends, just a few times a year, no wonder you didn't know…"  
"Uh--" That was a bit of a sore point with her family. With the merger of the local Lutheran and Episcopal congregations, some families of both - including the Possibles - had looked elsewhere. In the latter's case, while they had picked another church, they hadn't really settled in and were indeed little more than Christmas-and-Easter-type members anyway. But of course, she wasn't about to start sharing on one of the three subjects the discussion of which in public is generally best avoided.  
Fortunately, Tara didn't seem to notice her captain's hesitancy as she herself kept speaking about that very subject, kind of. "But lately I have been looking into Eastern religions."  
"I didn't know." Kim admitted.  
"There's a lot about your squad you don't know." the blonde muttered under her breath. "Anyway, nothing serious, at least insofar as the religious aspects are concerned - no more than you do with your kung fu. But even I've noticed I, look pretty good in the lotus position." she allowed just a light shade of smugness to come over her features as she finished.  
"No argument there."  
"Ron!" It was going to take the redhead a while to get out of the habit of trying to head off whatever potentially embarrassing or otherwise inappropriate thing her best friend might be saying.  
"What?"  
"Moving on!" Tara interjected, turning in her putative beau's embrace to face him. "What I was trying to get at was maybe your rabbi will go easier on you if I explain why you were up so late?"  
"Oh. Well, sure, you can try. I won't complain. You coming, KP?"  
"Not this time, Ron." she shook her head. While she'd been to temple with the Stoppable family a number of times, she figured this time she'd be a third wheel and that Tara would very much appreciate being the only cheerleader at Ron's side in the Sabbath congregation.

O

With the conversation having hit a lull - again - and with the need for them to leave now having manifested itself beyond their ability to ignore, Tara finally shrugged out of the comfortable spot she was in to reach for her wrap.  
"Well, let me just get my jacket and-- whoops!"  
That last word was caused by something falling out of a pocket of the outer piece of denim. It was a book, a book that Kim recognized with some amount of distaste.  
"Oh, Tara! Don't tell me you're still into this!"  
"I'm not! It's just that, I haven't worn that jacket in a while." she defended.  
Josh picked it up, and as he did he couldn't help but notice the title of the brightly multi-colored book.  
"Animology?"  
Kim was in a hurry to squelch any even morbid curiosity her date might possibly develop in the passed fad. "Completely bogus, Josh. Nothing for you to concern yourself with."  
That was a bit too much of a hurry for Tara, who was shrugging herself into her jacket - with a little help from her date. "Kim!"  
"What? I know what's best, for…" she trailed off embarrassingly. "oops. Sorry, Josh. I thought that--"  
"You'd better not finish that sentence, Kim." Tara intoned, crossing over toward her captain and emphasizing her point with an index finger in the face.  
Josh, undaunted, was still paging through the text, even taking notes on it along the way. Ron, in spite of himself. Found himself looking on in curiosity. With the way clear between him and the book, he even noticed what the owner thereof had determined herself to be based on the criteria. His shock was palpable even before he screamed out.  
"Wait, you're a Red Otter? Kim, she's a Red Otter!"  
"What?!?" Now the redhead found herself looking, also in spite of herself.  
"And I'm a Pink Sloth; we're soul-mates!" He looked up and into the blue eyes of the girl he'd lucked out to be with. "Tara, why didn't you say anything?"  
"Bonnie." she blushed. "She's a Lavender Mouse, and when Amelia found that out - and that SHE'S a Red Otter - she didn't want to have anything to do with Bonnie. I didn't want her thinking I might have similar ideas, which I don't."  
"I still don't see why you're best friends with her." Kim voiced.  
"I know, it's like we're complete opposites. But we have a history. Maybe not quite as far back as you and Ron, but still…" she trailed off.  
Meanwhile, Josh had really been going to town on the quiz. In fact, he was coming to the end "And…"  
Kim noticed, to her shock. "Josh! You're finished already? It took me all night!"  
"No big, as someone I know would say." he chuckled, totaling his score. "And I got… Yellow Trout."  
Kim grabbed the book. "No, way!" She was agog. So was Ron.  
"Kim, the Yellow Trout is the soul-mate to the Blue Fox. YOUR soul-mate!"  
"I, know!"  
"Maybe there's something TO this Animology stuff."  
"Maybe." Both members of Team Possible were clearly shaken by the events of the last few minutes.  
But as the foursome made their way to the Bueno Nacho exit, the frosty-haired artist - bringing up the rear - frowned; he'd found the bad news to his color-animal combination.  
"What? This can't be right! I didn't THINK I cared only about myself."

O

By the time the four were crossing the parking lot to Josh's car, his mood had lightened considerably. As he handed the book he'd been using back to Tara - who wasn't nearly as reluctant to accept it as she might have been five minutes before - the cumulative events of the evening came to him, and he couldn't keep a smile from his face.  
The four left Bueno Nacho the same way they'd left it. Shotgun was conceded to Kim with the blond couple taking the back seat, Ron behind his best friend, Tara behind the driver.  
Safely buckled in to the red convertible, he proceeded to share his thoughts with his new friends.  
"This has been the best night of my life; I want to thank you guys for making this new guy feel welcome. In all of the places I've been…"  
"Move around a lot, do you?" Ron called out sympathetically from the back seat.  
"Oh yeah. You see, my family, they travel."  
"They, 'travel'." Kim echoed.  
"Yeah. We travel. My family, it's one of those who have been called gypsies, among other terms." A frown momentarily creased the frosted blond's face at the thought of some of those 'other terms'. "We have our own paving business. Good work, pulls in great money, but…"  
"You don't get to put down roots, do you?" his date gently inquired.  
"No. I can think of fifteen, twenty places we've been. It's rare to stay in any one place for an entire school year. So what friends I make, I don't keep." He wasn't crying, but at the moment it might not have been far away.  
Kim's hand instinctively sought out and grasped his in empathy. "Oh, Josh."  
"So what's been happening to me in Middleton has been completely blowing me away." Now he was getting worked up again, in a positive way. "I mean, here I am in another new school for, just a few days? A couple weeks? And I'm in with the In Crowd, as they say. Dating the head cheerleader, turning down offers from so many others, including the head cheerleader's rival and self-styled Queen Bee of the Food Chain - not that I'm after any kind of social status symbol, mind you." he hastily added.  
She nodded, emphatically, with a slightly dangerous look on her face and a bordering-on-powerful squeeze of the hand. "I should hope not."  
"I was expecting to, just, be ignored again, if I was lucky." he continued, almost to himself. "Just retreat into my art and my music again. My folks know I get lonely so they, indulge my hobbies. Maybe one of them will, turn into something. They want better for me than for them."  
"Parents generally do." his date responded.  
At this point Ron voiced his opinion. From the back seat, he placed a hand on Josh's shoulder.  
"Well, Josh, wherever you go from here - and whenever - the friends you make here, you're not going to lose."  
"Got that right." echoed Kim, squeezing her date's hand again.  
"Amen!" Tara finished as she placed her hand on top of Ron's.  
Precious seconds were afforded to tick past before Josh broke the silence.  
"So, who do I drop off first?"

O

After no small amount of discussion - including comparing curfews and reviewing the logistics of the different possible combinations of people - it was decided that Josh would drop off the ladies -Kim, then Tara - and then Ron. He got the short end of the deal, but someone was going to.  
A few minutes later they were in the Possible driveway. As was his duty as a gentleman and her date, Josh got out and walked around to let Kim out; she objected, but Ron was able to talk her into going along with it. As Josh was about to walk her to the door, she whispered in his ear that she needed to have a word with Tara in private. Dashing around to the appropriate door, she opened it and repeated her intent to her fellow cheerleader. Curious in a neutral way, the platinum blonde excused herself from the guys, got out, and followed her captain a few yards away.  
"So, Tara?"  
"Yes?"  
"About what happened in the ladies room…"  
She'd been hoping the redhead would forget about that incident, but inwardly, she had known better. Sucking in a sudden breath, she glanced back to the car in spite of herself, as if in fear the guys might somehow be overhearing, distance notwithstanding. "Wh- wh- What about it?"  
Emerald eyes fixed azure ones. "Bonnie knows, doesn't she?"  
Confusion now. "What?"  
"She overheard what you were saying, that you wanted Josh to go with me instead of her?"  
"Oh. Yeah." She herself had forgotten that aspect of the 'conversation', and for good reason; she'd have somewhat to answer for with her best friend before the night was out.  
"You're going to talk to her later tonight." the captain continued.  
"Well, sure, she's my best friend."  
"What are you going to say to her?"  
"The truth." she replied without hesitation.  
That caught Kim off-guard, so that she didn't have time for her mind to ripen to incredulity before spitting out the next word. "What?"  
"That's the kind of relationship we have." the platinum blonde earnestly explained. "We don't see eye to eye on too much. I mean, each of us does things the other doesn't agree with. But we don't lie to each other; we're completely honest. When it's just us, just her and me, straight all the way." She tried to illustrate the point by holding joined hands to elbow height, then moving them apart in a straight line to her sides, still at elbow height, palms down. "That's the foundation of our relationship, of our friendship. Neither of us is going to change that. We trust each other implicitly, and neither one of us is going to betray that trust. We might go behind the back - like I did tonight, kind of," she ruefully admitted, irises moving toward the side. "- but, afterwards it's always about full disclosure."  
"She won't like it." Kim cautioned.  
"Probably not." Tara agreed. "But she'll like it even less if she finds out I lied to her. And she will find out, these things always get out."  
"How do you think she'll take it?"  
"Not very well, but…" her breath started to labor, "we're ALWAYS honest with each other. However we feel about each other, however Bonnie and I feel about each other - we don't lie." she emphasized. "Not about anything."  
Kim was floored; she wasn't sure if even she and Ron were that honest with each other, and the thought of the Queen of Mean herself having such a friendship, well...  
"Well, good luck. If you want to talk to someone afterwards, you know how to get in touch with me."  
"I might do that." the blue-eyed beauty turned to go back to the car, then hesitated. "She's really not that bad a person, not when she's not, getting all caught up in the Food Chain stuff, posturing vis-à-vis you and all. No offense."  
"None taken."  
Every other word now, she hesitated. "There's, a lot about her you don't know. Best friend stuff, things I can't reveal. She's…" she trailed off in seeming frustration at how to explain without betraying the brunette.  
"Tara?"  
Shaking her head, she tried to explain anyway. "I, I can't really say anything, it's just that… never mind."  
"Okay."  
Going ambulatory again, Tara started back to the car, Josh noticing and moving toward them as if to relieve her at Kim's side, to escort his date to her door of course. "Good night, Kim."  
Turning to the house, the redhead hesitated. "See you Monday?"  
The blonde stopped. "Right, the Space Center. I, I'll go to Ron's, and then we'll come over together. What time?" she turned partially back toward her captain as she inquired.  
"Bright and early, just like you're going to school."  
"Okay, see you then." And without another word she again started in the direction of Josh's red convertible, and this time she didn't stop until she was there.  
"I'm looking forward to it." Kim responded under her breath. By then, Josh was there, offering her a hand, literally. She placed hers in his, and he escorted her the rest of the way to her house.

O

Josh had been leaning against his car, waiting for just such an occasion, giving his date some space yet ready to act the part of a gentleman at a moment's notice. When it became clear that the girls were parting for sure this time, he stood and started fast-walking to catch up to his date before she reached her front door.  
Ron was there too, leaning against the fiberglass body next to him, his eyes part on his best friend, part on his putative girlfriend (although maybe even that was pushing things), also ready to act the part of a gentleman and open the door for her.  
As the blonde approached, he did just that. With a flourish, he invited her back into her seat, graciously; and she accepted, graciously, demurely settling into her seat and reaching for the seat belt as he closed the door. By the time she'd finished buckling in, he was settling himself in his seat next to her and starting the process she was finishing; he'd made good time around the back of the car.

O

As he finished buckling in, she shifted her focus to him, curiosity rising.  
"So, what were you two talking about?"  
"Nothing."  
"Nothing? As in…?"  
"As in nothing."  
She didn't believe it. "What is it with guys, that they can be right next to each other and not even say two words to each other?"  
He groaned, having preferred to stay away from the subject of gender. "Yeah, it's true; we guys are like that sometimes. You know, KP never believed it either when I'd tell he- ow!"  
Her hand had found its way into his, and she squeezed it a bit forcefully at this last bit of conversation as a sour look crossed her face. Ron was suddenly reminded of the strength to be found in a cheerleader's hands.  
"Um, Tara, a bit tight there!"  
She kept looking straight ahead at the headrest in front of her as she responded to him. "Yes, it is." Then she squeezed even tighter, for a split second, before letting go.  
By the time he recovered from the surprise, she had decided on a course of pragmatism tinged with compassion and a little affection. His cluelessness was not exactly unknown around Middleton, and it was obvious that even for a boy, he didn't understand girls. So, someone had to explain things to him if he was ever going to know. The blonde elected herself for the job. As her date finished recovering, she held up her other hand to forestall his question or questions.  
"Ron."  
"Yes, Tara?"  
"There's some things you're going to have to understand if you're going to have any success at dating. Me, or any other girl." she added the last bit ruefully at the thought of him dating someone else. She sighed, swallowed, and then plunged ahead. "Look, there's some things you just don't do on a date, and it's obvious that you don't really know about some of them."  
"So I WAS doing something wrong!"  
"Well, not until just now. That bit with the soda was an accident, could've happened to anyone. But just now, you really stepped in it."  
Mentally, he was trying to search for a clue, as his face attested. "What did I do?"  
"Settle back and listen, and I'll try to explain."

O

"Ron, you'll find I'm very understanding, as girls go. For that reason, I'm giving you a pass on your violating one of the top rules of dating."  
"What did I do?" he repeated.  
"You mentioned Kim."  
"KP? What does she have to do with anything?"  
"Nothing, and that's exactly the point. Ron, I get how things are with you and Kim. You're best friends. You save the world together. You've known each other since you were four. All very well and good. But Ron, there's a time and place for everything, and a date with one girl is not the time or the place to be even thinking - much less talking - about another girl, even if she happens to be your best friend." she finished, then pondered that last bit before deciding to emphasize it a little bit. "Especially if she happens to be your best friend.  
"You see, Ron, there's a fragile streak that runs through those who date, or at least some of us. Those of us who dare to put ourselves out there like to maintain at least the illusion that the heart's not going to eventually be broken."  
"What?"  
"When you're on a date with a girl, she wants for you to think about, talk about, and pay attention to, only her. That means that talk about any other girl - and Kim fits into that category too, Ron - is off-limits. And especially no comparisons! Like just now, I didn't believe something, and you said that Kim doesn't believe it either; that's a no-no. Are you following me, Ron?"  
"Yeah, I, I think so. I'm just not used to thinking of KP as a girl. I mean, I know she's a girl, sure, but, I just don't think of her like that."  
"I know, Ron, and that's another reason I'm going easy on you. You'll just have to learn that your best friend - who just happens to be a girl - is not a suitable topic for dating conversation, no matter how innocuous."  
"Innocuous?"  
"Innocent."  
"Oh. Those school words always throw me."

O

If you had asked either Tara or Ron - or Josh - at what point in that conversation he had reached his car, stepped inside, and / or secured himself in the driver's seat and shifted the vehicle out of park and into heading for the Gardner house; none of the three of them could have said for certain. The blond couple was deep in conversation to the extent they didn't notice what was going on in front of them, and the other blond was trying not to listen.  
While he was making a concerted effort to give his passengers some privacy, Josh couldn't help overhearing the occasional word or phrase. He found himself nodding at a point now and again, and had to stop himself from offering a few words of his own.  
And he was really trying to give them some privacy as Ron walked Tara to her door. He didn't even leave the car. That said, he couldn't help noticing that Ron floated back.  
Or rather that was the general idea somewhere in the young man's mind, behind the fog. The grin on Josh's face was soon laced with a smattering of confusion and concern as he noticed that while his fellow blond was heading in the right direction - generally - his aim was off by quite a bit. In fact, as he gave an impromptu presentation of the human version of the plant known as the Wandering Jew, it became increasingly clear that Ron probably didn't even know what ZIP Code he was in. Not that he would have known that anyway, but you get the idea.  
Motivated into action as he saw the fellow approaching the curb, Josh finally exited the car and bolted toward young Stoppable. Seizing him by the upper arms, he managed to bring him to a standstill.  
"Ron!"  
That one didn't work, as nothing came out of the guy's mouth but a small spool of drool. Dabbing at the stuff with a handy handkerchief, Josh tried again, with a shake.  
"Ron! Ron?"  
"Hmm?"  
"Are you all right, man?"  
"Hmm? Oh, it's all right; I'll take the lawn to the barber next week, then to the bakery for a quick trim of bear claws."  
"What?!"  
This was his first exposure to the wacky wonderland that was Ron's brain under the influence, as it were; and the frosty-haired artist wasn't sure he was ready for any more of such. Tightening his grip, he shook him again. "Ron!"  
"Huh? Josh?" That brought him out of it.  
"I said are you all right?"  
"Oh. Yeah, I'm perfectly fine."  
He let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. "Good. I was wondering if I'd have to try to find Brick or some other jock to give you a belt and snap you out of it."  
"Belt? No, I didn't need one, didn't lose my pants once tonight!" Well, maybe he wasn't quite completely out of the fog, although it was close enough to his normal state to pass a cursory inspection.  
"Huh? Never mind, I don't want to know." Josh changed his mind as a scene from that news story he'd seen on Kim on TV flashed through his mind, a scene of Ron losing his pants. Josh found himself giving thanks that Ron wore boxers. *Wouldn't want him to flash Kim in anything less*, he thought.  
Releasing one arm, but getting a better grip with the other, Josh turned to walk Ron back to the car. "Come on, Ron. Let's go home."  
"Yeah." was all that came out of the other blond's mouth as he had mentally almost completely cleared the daze the pretty little blue-eyed blonde had put him in. As the two of them approached the convertible, Ron's hand went out to grasp the handle of the back door.  
Josh noticed. "Not this time, Ron; you're up front with me."  
"Really?"  
"Yeah. The ladies are gone, so you call shotgun."  
"Coolio!" Now under his own power, Ron opened the appropriate door and set about securing himself in the passenger seat as Josh walked around to do the same in the driver's seat.  
A vague whiff of Kim's normal scent making an impression on his senses, a question occurred to Ron as they got back on the road.  
"Wait, who says I'm dense?!?" he yelled to the world.

O

In due time, the red convertible pulled into the Stoppables' driveway. The front passenger door opened, and a certain blond exited, walked around the back of the car, sidled past the side to the open driver's side window, and leaned in.  
"Well, Ron," came from the window, "it's been quite a night."  
"Sure has. I'm glad that I was wrong about you."  
An eyebrow lowered from the driver. "Oh?"  
"Yeah, I take back every bad thing I was thinking about you before."  
Only a trace of negative vibes could be found in the confusion on Josh's face, and that was only if you looked for it. "Thanks, I guess."  
"You're welcome." Then, in a moment of lucidity - they seemed to be happening more often now with Tara in his life - Ron reviewed what he'd just said. "Oh! N, not that I was really thinking anything bad about you, Josh. Just--"  
"What?" The negativity had passed, but he was still confused and wanting clarification.  
The trademark Ron Stoppable right-hand-to-the-back-of-the-neck tic again manifested itself. "Oh, just a bit of artistic prejudice, you know, head-in-the-clouds stuff, that sort of thing."  
"Really." Now he was putting an effort to keep the negativity from returning.  
Ron's hand kept rubbing. "Yeah, and you don't want to know about my Mankey-monkey conspiracy."  
A smile of good-humored tolerance was now on the artist's face. "I'll, take your word for it."  
"Thanks. And I, I apologize, for--"  
"Forget it."  
"Heh-heh, consider it forgotten." the tousle-haired blond muttered under his breath, low enough to not be heard distinctively at that distance. Then, trying to change the subject, Ron asked, "So, Josh, about tomorrow, wanna come with?"  
Josh hadn't even thought about expecting that one. "Tomorrow? You, you mean, to, to temple?"  
"Sure! Well, I was thinking, you and KP, we could make it a foursome again."  
While Kim had already made clear her intention to not accompany Ron this Sabbath - no doubt to avoid crowding Tara's style with her best friend - Ron thought the redhead might change her mind if her crush-and-more decided to come.  
That was not to be, however. "Naw, I, I can't, I, I'm trying to put a band together and, we're auditioning some guys tomorrow."  
That got Ron's attention. "You, you have a band?"  
"Yeah, garage band, you know, rock and roll sort of stuff, some jazz..." Then a thought struck the frosty-haired artist. "Why, you, you play?"  
Ron's smile cracked a bit wider at that. "What, me, play an instrument?"  
"I'm thinking, 'no'?"  
"Josh, the only thing I can play is a video game controller."  
"What about singing?"  
"Tried that; it wasn't pretty. Reading from the Torah at my bar mitzvah was enough for me."  
"Okay, what about Kim?"  
"KP? Well, she has a pretty good voice, just a thing about the high notes." Ron caught himself just a bit too late, then leaned closer to Josh as if to minimize anyone overhearing, despite no one being within yards of them, "But, um, if she knows that I told anyone..."  
"Don't worry, I've already forgotten it."  
"You have? I said that KP--"  
A hand went up. "Ron, I remember it; I just didn't hear it, from you."  
"Huh?"  
A chuckle or two managed to escape. "Never mind."  
Still trying to figure out what his fellow blond was talking about, Ron stood from his leaning position. He was about to give up and head for the house when Josh spoke up.  
"So, we're cool now."  
Another "Huh?" was the response.  
"About that stuff about me, that you were wrong about?"  
"Oh! Oh, that! Oh, oh, yeah, yeah…" Apparently he had to think about it. "Yeah, I'm totally cool, like that, I'm, I'm fine with y-, you, you're all right." Then his expression briefly darkened to the 'serious face'. "Just make sure that Kim stays happy."  
If Josh gulped, he was masking it very well. "No problem."  
"Oh, and Josh, a little tip? I'm still not giving out any spoilers as to what kind of reception you can expect from her fam, but you might not want to mention the arts and music stuff in front of Mr. Dr. P; the guy has a thing about, 'show folk'."  
Now traces of nervousness could be seen on the frosty-haired artist's face. "Good to know, thanks."  
He again turned to leave when Josh called after him again. "And I guess you don't need any advice on how to treat Tara."  
Apparently that triggered a memory or two, because when Ron again faced Josh, he had a smitten look on his face.  
"I mean, I didn't look, but at her house? You floated back to the car; I had to get out and stop you from wandering out into the street!"  
Ron's brow briefly clouded, briefly, that is. "Really? I don't remember." Then his mien assumed its previous position, and the rest of his body apparently followed suit, because there he went again.

O

Again, Josh found himself having to leave the convertible to wrangle Ron, this time hustling him to the door of his own house - Ron's house, that is. He knocked on the door.  
Maybe ten seconds elapsed before the door opened; if one were to guess that Ron's father was waiting up for him in the living room, one wouldn't miss it by much.  
"Ronald, do you have any idea what ti-- Oh, hello." Mr. Stoppable broke off as he noticed the other young man in the doorway.  
"Hey." Josh responded, sticking out a hand toward the elder Stoppable. "I'm Josh Mankey; I was Kim's date tonight? Ron and his date rode back with us."  
His action was reciprocated. "Dean Stoppable." And, handshake!  
Josh continued to play the expositor. "Oh, Tara will explain what happened tonight when she comes over in the morning; she'll be going to temple with you."  
That surprised the actuary. "Well, we'll be glad to have her… Ronald?" he broke off again, as again Ron's feet started to move, this time on auto-pilot to his room.  
Josh explained. "I, I wouldn't try to get anything out of him tonight. It's been a good night for him."  
"Apparently so." he mused.  
His work there done, Josh started to step away from the porch. "Well I, I gotta jet, gotta get home, you know."  
Mr. S's hand went up in a wave. "Safe driving, Josh. It was nice to meet you."  
"Likewise, and good night, Mr. Stoppable." he finished as the door closed between them.  
"Good night, Josh." was the reply to the door.  
As he turned to the stairs - which his son had already ascended to the midpoint - he could see that he would indeed get no information out of the young man that night.  
Well, I guess he did have a good night. I look forward to hearing about it. He thought - with a chuckle - as he turned off the living room lights and made certain all doors were locked.  
Passing the just-closed door to his son's room, the actuary was alone with his thoughts. As he approached the door to the room he and his wife shared, said thoughts took a turn.  
Wonder what Barbara will say. Then he smiled. Probably something along the lines of her boy becoming a man, again, again.  
The smile flickered a little, as he was uncertain about that last 'again'.

O

On the other side of the door, young Ronald might have been hovering around fifth or sixth heaven. Sighing as he finally pushed off of leaning on the slab of wood with a knob on it, he set about getting ready for bed. The long-practiced tradition didn't really need to be thought about, which was a good thing since his brain was on auto-pilot.  
Rufus, still at the computer, noticed his human's entrance, of course; and called out a 'Hi!' to him, which went unnoticed by the boy. The mole rat did notice, however, and a debate ensued within the little guy as to whether to shake Ron out of it. It was decided to forgo action until more information was collected, which necessitated watching him for a bit longer. And if no further information was forthcoming, at least there would be the certainty of entertainment.  
And as his whiskers twitched, he was indeed entertained.

Ron's routine finished, he sat on the side of his bed for a minute or two. As he slowly moved into a sleeping position, he touched himself - no, not in that way!

He started with the ears, noticing as never before what handy handholds they made. Hands then drifted forward, across his cheeks. Finally the upper appendages finished the journey at about the same time their body did, lightly touching that which covered and crowned the mouth, the lips.

As Rufus - never taking his eyes off of his boy - alit onto the pillow at his usual sleeping position beside said boy, while he might not have seen the even-goofier-than-usual grin, sharp ears did pick up four dreamy words.

"She called me Ronnie-poo!"

O

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And so we close this opening segment in the TaRoniverse story arc, except for just one more. Yes, folks, this 'just one more' will really be the last one; I might have been acquainted with Columbo, but I never really saw a whole episode, so no more of that 'one more thing' stuff. Next from me will be the going-on-three-years update on The Brainy Saga - yes, TBS fans - if there are any of you left - the next chapter is forthcoming. I just needed to see a certain episode of Homicide, and it's coming up, I think. In the KP-verse, I have some other stuff I'm working on: the aforementioned Cheerleader Locker Room Confessions, Pain King's My Boy! (a backstory for Monique), more stuff in the TaRoniverse (what happens when Monique gets into the mix? or Zita? or Felix?), some canon stuff starting with Homecoming, things from far into the future, maybe I'll use a character or two from someone else, you never know. Then there's my All Grown Up fics; I'll need to do some revising if I'm going to continue them, and I intend to do that as well. Of course I'll have to fit all this in with work, college homework (CALCULUS! ARRGH! Maybe I should look up the Tweebs for tutoring), piano practicing, voice practicing, preparing lessons for Sunday School, not to mention trying to make sense of what's on my collection of hundreds of video tapes and trying to get likes together, a Herculean job in itself. Well, I'll keep trying to fit writing in among the rest of it all. In the meantime and beyond, online, on e-mail (now on Cable One but still taking e-mail on AOL), and on AIM, I'm Nftnat.


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